146 MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



there was a consequent advance in the interest taken in Merinos, 

 which maintained a steady growth culminating in the veritable 

 boom times during the Civil war. During the latter period, prices 

 reached an abnormally high level, ewes selling for $300 to $1,000 

 per head and rams from $1,000 to $5,000. Following the war 

 came a depression, sudden and severe, the price of wool declined, 

 and thousands of good Merino sheep were sold and slaughtered for 

 their pelts. For the evolution of the packing house and the 

 demand for mutton were then unknown. The recovery was com- 

 paratively quick, however, and with the resumption of general in- 

 dustrial prosperity and the opening of the vast western range 

 country came good times to the Merino business. And as the 

 depression was not so long continued leading flocks did not suffer 

 materially, and improvement was practically continuous. 



The late '70s saw the height of prosperity to the Merino as 

 bred and improved by American breeders, especially in Vermont, 

 for sales were numerous and highly profitable. These were days 

 of high tariff and high wool, and any adjustment of the former 

 greatly affected the Merino and his breeders, so that with tariff 

 disturbances in 1883 and again in 1885 we see depression in the 

 Merino business, and the power and glamor of Vermont Merinos 

 were slowly but surely on the wane, and by the time of the indus- 

 trial depression of 1893 the condition of Vermont flocks was as 

 depressed as at any time in their history, and since then there has 

 been little revival. 



The causes of this are various and numerous, but two very 

 important and underlying reasons for the loss of popularity of 

 the Vermont Merino were the rise and development of a demand for 

 mutton, thus making all sheep valuable for it as well as wool, and 

 the movement of the great center of the sheep industry to the 

 northwest range states. One great factor in retarding the decline 

 was the export trade to Australia and South America, which fur- 

 nished a profitable market for the best animals at good prices for 

 several .years. But this market has also decreased until now it 

 is of little more importance than the home market. 



We may here note some of the improvements and character- 

 istics of these Vermont Merinos, and some of their leading breed- 

 ers. Merino breeding started with the sheep imported from Spain, 

 which were then considered a superior wool bearing animal, the 

 heaviest rams' fleeces weighing about 9 to 10 pounds of unwashed 

 wool and ewes five to six pounds. According to Stephen Atwood's 

 records, his heaviest ram's fleece in 1820 was seven pounds, one 

 ounce, and his heaviest ewe's fleece, four pounds, six ounces, of 

 washed wool, while in 1844, they were respectively twelve pounds, 

 four ounces, and six pounds, six ounces. In 1863, Edwin Ham- 

 mond sheared twenty-seven pounds of unwashed wool from old 



