14 MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



Indians has for a very long time been interested in sheep > more 

 particularly for wool growing than for any other purpose, and the 

 Xavajo blanket is a much talked of article the world over. Today 

 they own somewhere near a million head of sheep, which are 

 being very much improved by the use of purebred rams. 



Mention is made that Columbus, on his second voyage to 

 America, loaded some sheep at Gomera, one of the Canary Islands, 

 October 5, 1493, which he afterwards landed at Isabella, the first 

 Christian city in the New World. From there they found their 



Scene on the Snowy River in Australia. Sydney Mail. 



way to the Isthmus of Panama and to Mexico. We are told that 

 in 1609 the colonists of Virginia were provided by the London 

 Company with sheep and in 1625 the Dutch West India Company 

 brought sheep to New York. The first settlers of Connecticut 

 are said to have brought sheep with them, and no doubt their 

 class of sheep was kept in the central western states, more or 

 less, until the introduction of the Spanish Merino. 



The Down breeds of sheep derive their name from the Down 

 counties in which they originated, and many of the Longwools 

 from the counties bearing their name. The Downs are a range of 

 hills in southern and southwest England, underlaid with chalk, 



