MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 149 



THE RAMBOUILLET. 



Although the Eambouillet has been bred in a distinct line 

 for more than a century, yet he has only attained a position of 

 importance in American sheep husbandry during the last fifteen 

 or twenty years. His ancestors were the best individuals from 

 the choicest cabanas in Spain, were secured through royal favor 

 for a king (Louis XVI of France), regardless of cost, and the 

 entire flock, 318 ewes and forty-one rams, thus selected in Spain 

 in 1785 were brought to the French royal estate at Eambouillet 

 near Paris, whence they secured their distinctive name. Here, 

 under government care and supervision, the flock has been main- 



Rambouillet Rams. Lincoln Type. 



tained to the present day, sales of rams being made, and very rarely 

 a few ewes. A few other flocks were established in France, from 

 the government flock and from Spanish importations, and they 

 have furnished sheep to Germany and America, the other countries 

 where the Rambouillet has secured popular favor. 



The first importation of Rambouillets to .the United States 

 was in 1840, by D. C. Collins, of Connecticut, and consisted of 

 fourteen ewes and two rams. In 1846, Mr, J. A. Taintor, of Con- 

 necticut, made a small importation and continued annual im- 

 portations for several years. Few of these sheep were from the 

 government flock, and nearly all of them found their way to the 

 Pacific coast through the instrumentality of Mr. J. D. Patter- 

 son, of New York, and Mr. Bingham, of Vermont, and thus became 

 the foundation of the leading flocks of French Merinos on the 

 coast. 



In 1851 a small importation of about fifty head from a 



