43 



owned a plantation on the Island of Cuba. His sheep were Me- 

 rinoes, and fine ; I worked his wool a number of years into fine 

 broadcloth, lie took a large lot of his fine wool sheep to Cuba 

 to keep, and sent me his wool sheared from the same fine sheep. 

 After keeping them in Cuba the jear round, I was surprised at 

 its appearance ; the wool Avas very coarse and hairy, and not 

 nearly as fine as our native wool raised here. The Committee are 

 satisfied that sheep will pay the farmer much better profits in Nor- 

 folk County than any other stock, and with much less labor, if 

 they will select the right kind of sheep. It appears to the Com- 

 mittee that there need be no mistake in obtaining the right kind. 

 The question is, what kind pays best. The Committee will say, 

 that in Norfolk County, where mutton and lambs are in such good 

 demand, and at such high prices, that good breeders and nursers 

 of a medium grade of wool, are most profitable. 



Hon. James D'VVolf, of Bristol, R. I., imported in 1813 and 

 14, Merinoes into Bristol, of the Pauler breed. This breed is 

 remarkable for its hardihood and weight of fleece, in which re- 

 spects it exceeds all other varieties of the Merino, although its 

 wool is not so fine as the Nigrette breed. From Mr. D'Wolf's 

 flock in Bristol, it mixed with other grades, — say mostly with 

 South Down and the large Native or English varieties, — and at 

 this day the most of the sheep at Bristol, Newport and Middle- 

 town, are of that stock. In 1813 George Hazard sheared from a 

 Pauler ram, sixteen and a half pounds, for Avhich he got thirty- 

 two dollars (the Chairman of this Committee worked the wool 

 and found it was fine). The sheep husbandry has been kept up 

 better in the above named towns than any others in New Eng- 

 land, and the Committee think it is owing to their keeping the 

 right grade of sheep. Massachusetts went early into the fine 

 Nigrette Merino, and fine Saxony, which avooI was very fine, but 

 the sheep were poor breeders and feeble, and had about as much 

 as thev could do to take care of themselves, and we have often 

 known them to disown their own lambs, and did not much blame 

 them. In the judgment of the Committee, the introduction of 

 those feeble sheep was the cause of the decline of sheep husbandry 

 in Massachusetts. It appears from a report of George B. Loring, 

 Chairman on Sheep, from Essex County, that the decline of sheep 

 in Massachusetts in twenty years, from 1840 to 1860, was more 

 than 2.50,000, which left in the State but 100,000. Of the 

 22,000,000 lbs. of wool worked in Massachusetts, but about 

 600,000 of it was raised in the Commonwealth in 1850, since 

 which time more has been consumed every year, and in 1864 we 

 have no doubt that more than double the amount is consumed in 

 this State than was in 1860, and less wool raised. The Commit- 

 tee think it safe to raise such stock as will command a ready 



