APPENDIX. 43 i 



LETTER FROM STEPHEN SIBLEY, OF HGPKINTON, NEW HAMP- 

 SHIRE. 



Dear Sir, — In answer to yours of the 14tli inst., I will say that 

 my flock of sheep is of the Saxon breed, and at this time numbers 

 three hundred ; before my sales in the fall, it usually reaches 

 from three hundred seventy-five to four hundred. 1 began my 

 flock in the fall of eighteen hundred and twenty-one, with a few 

 Merinos which originated from a flock imported into this country 

 from Spain, and kept in the neighborhood of Newburyport, Mass., 

 by a gentleman of the name of Gorham Parsons. 1 bred in the 

 same flock several years, and then procured and put to my sheep 

 an imported Merino buck. In the summer of 1826 a cargo of 

 very fine Saxony sheep was imported into Boston, and sold at 

 Brighton, Mass. A friend of mine in Hillsborough county in this 

 State attended the sale and bought two bucks, one of which I 

 purchased immediately after his return. In 1828 I introduced 

 into my flock a few Saxony ewes. The principal importers of 

 Saxony sheep into New England were two gentlemen of Boston 

 by the name of Searle. They purchased in Saxony, for their own 

 use, one hundred ewes and four bucks, without regard to price. 

 That flock was taken to Walpoie, N. H., by Samuel Grant, wdio 

 eventually became the owner of it, and from that stock I drew my 

 male breeders from 1832 to 1839. I likewise bought of the same 

 gentleman a few of his most approved ewes. In the fall of 1639, 

 I visited the celebrated flock of Electoral Saxony sheep of the 

 late Henry D. Grove, of Hoosic, New York, and bought of that 

 gentleman forty-seven ewes and three bucks. Since my purchase 

 of Mr. Grove, I have introduced no sheep from abroad into my 

 flock, for I am satisfied it cannot be done from any flock in this 

 country, without producing a retrograde. I am an equal owner 

 with another person of a silver medal, awarded for the finest 

 American wool by the American Institute at the city of New 

 York in 1838. The Massachusetts Chaiitable Mechanic As- 

 sociation also awarded to me a splendid gold medal for the finest 

 American w^ool in 1841. 



My sheep are small, beautifully proportioned, and perfectly 

 healthy. I shear per head on an average, after tagging three 

 ounces from each, about two pounds of wool. I dispose of all 

 my wethers as young as possible to give place to breeders, which 

 are more profitable. Were I to keep a usual proportion of full- 

 grown males it would bring up my average to about two and a 

 half pounds. I have made it a nile for about twenty j^ears to 

 cull from my flock every coarse and ordinary ewe, and breed from 

 the finest only, with the utmost care as to male parentage. I 

 make the month of May my yeaning month, for I have never 

 known a delicately fine-wooled sheep that came in the winter. Cli- 

 mate has an effect, and a very great one, on our flocks, as regards 



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