122 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



judges of stock generally, and of sheep particularly, can perhaps be 

 found in the State. 



JosiAH D. Canjsting, 

 Tkuman Clakk, 

 Joseph Newell, 

 Joseph B. Callender, 



Judges. 



Our " native " sheep derive their origin from sources as 

 various as our native cattle and horses. The date of the ear- 

 liest importation into Massachusetts is not known, but as sheep 

 are known to have been kept on some of the islands in Boston 

 harbor in 1G33, they must have been introduced in, or previous to 

 that year. In the plantation at Piscataqua already alluded to, 

 there were ninety-two sheep in 1635, and as early as 1G50 there 

 were about four hundred in Charlestown alone, and probably 

 many more in the vicinity of Boston. Sheep were taken to the 

 island of Nantucket in 1660, at the time of the first settlement, 

 and the raising of wool was continued with much spirit down 

 to a comparatively recent date, the number of sheep ranging 

 from six to ten thousand. It is now nearly abandoned there. 



The fine-woolled sheep of this State are, for the most part 

 pure or grade merinos, such as the Saxons, Silesian, and French 

 merinos, and crosses of these with coarser or middle-woolled 

 varieties. 



The merinos have been known in Spain for many centuries. 

 Even the ancient Greeks are said to have imported them from 

 the peninsula during the palmy days of Athens, and it is 

 reported that a single buck sometimes cost to import, no less 

 than a talent, or twelve hundred dollars, while the Romans for 

 a long time used the fine and beautiful wool for the manufacture 

 of their finest fabrics till the later days of the empire, when the 

 luxurious eastern silks were introduced. But the produce of 

 its flocks formed for many years the chief article of export, and 

 of course the principal source of the wealth of Spain. The 

 merino is unrivalled for the fineness of its wool. No English 

 breed can compete with it in this respect, and in ftict the breed- 

 ing of finc-woolled sheep has been almost entirely abandoned 

 by the English farmer for the more profitable business of breed- 

 ing for the carcass. 



