1858.] SENATE— No. 4. 123 



Many of the northern states of Europe began early to devote 

 attention to the raising of wool, but the first country favored 

 with the use of merinos, was Sweden, to which a small flock 

 was carried as early as 1723. The experiment succeeded, the 

 government soon offering generous premiums to the breeders of 

 fine-woolled sheep and on the sales of the best wool, and the 

 encouragement thus extended, succeeded to such an extent that 

 the importation of fine wool soon ceased, and in 1764 there 

 were no less than C5,000 pure merino sheep in Sweden, and 

 23,000 grades, whose wool had been greatly improved by tho 

 merino cross. The merino, though taken from the south to the 

 north of Europe, has somewhat increased in size and hardihood, 

 preserving its form and characteristics, and the wool seems to 

 have lost none of its fineness. 



The improvement of German wools dates from the introduc- 

 tion of Merino sheep. At the end of the seven years' war, in 

 1765, -the Elector of Saxony procured a hundred rams and the 

 same number of ewes from the best flocks in Spain, and placed 

 a part of them on his own estates, near Dresden, and the rest 

 in various parts of Saxony, for the purpose of improving the 

 original Saxon sheep. These sheep were soon found to preserve 

 their high character, producing wool equal to the best fleeces 

 of Spain, while the cross with the best original breed of Saxony 

 greatly improved its fleece. The utmost care was taken in the 

 selection of males for breeding for the fine quality of wool, and 

 the wool in course of time came to be superior even to the wool 

 of Spain, and commands a better price, standing, as it does, 

 unrivalled for cloths of the finest texture. The first importa- 

 tion was soon followed by others. From these early importations 

 the Merinos rapidly spread over every country of Europe, and 

 received many local names which they bear to this day. Some 

 of these subvarieties, as the Saxons and Silesians, have been 

 imported to considerable extent into this country. The wool 

 of Silesia ranks very high, surpassing even that of the finest 

 migratory sheep of the peninsula. The fleece of the fully 

 developed Silesian Merino possesses great fineness, evenness, 

 thickness and weight, being compact over the whole body. 



The first importation of pure Merinos into Massachusetts 

 took place in 1793. It consisted of two ewes and one ram. 

 At that time no one in the vicinity of Boston understood or 



