162 CONKEY'S STOCK BOOK 



Country, England. The colonists were first of all aiming to get mutton 

 from their sheep. They could not get any pure stock at first, and only 

 mixed varieties were brought in; but these gave a very satisfactory quality 

 of meat, and along with it a very fair wool production. Soon the colonists 

 were anxious to weave their own shearings. But the anger of the Mother 

 Country crashed down upon them at this display of rivalry with the looms 

 of old England. England wanted a monopoly of all the trade from her 

 colonies; and, like a blood-sucking parasite, she fastened on wool manu- 

 facturing. Hard laws were passed, unjust restrictions. It was no wonder 

 that the spirit of rebellion found so many united for it. In 1776 the colon- 

 ists with one heart and purpose pushed forward to success against all 

 obstacles the American Revolution. 



THE START Meanwhile on the western slope, undisturbed by his- 



IN CALIFORNIA tory-making east of the Alleghanies, the Spanish 



priests quietly established their long chain of missions 



or church settlements for the making of "good" Indians out of "bad" 

 Indians; set out their vineyards and spread their countless flocks over the 

 ranges. The first Spanish sheep were introduced in 1773 and soon seventeen 

 establishments were in operation for sheep husbandry all the property of 

 the missions extending in a line from San Diego as far north as San Fran- 



Telling a "good mouth"! to 4 years 



cisco, with a total of no less than 1,003,970 sheep. In addition to this we 

 can estimate that fully as many sheep were owned by individual "rancheros," 

 chiefly Spanish grandees who had cast their lot with the new country. This 

 is a part of history we hear little of in the school books. But quietly, 

 steadily, the Pacific settlements were making progress, with the "good" 

 Indians to help them and only the "bad" Indians (i. e., unconverted by 

 missions) to oppose their mastery of that country's rich resources. 



NOT "ALL WOOL" Humphreys, United States Minister to Spain, in 

 1802 brought home from that country 200 Spanish 



Merinos. These and other importations immediately following were all 

 of the finest Spanish flocks. Before long 3,850 head of Spanish Merinos 

 could be counted among the enterprising New England and New York 

 breeders; and the famous Spanish Merino was successfully transplanted to 

 our Eastern states. Up to 1870 Merinos made up four-fifths of the sheep 

 raised in this country. A tendency to mutton development has set in, how- 

 ever, for with growing cities more and more mutton is needed. Thus 

 today we find that East of the Mississippi the coarse wool, or medium wool, 

 mutton breeds come up to the market requirements. The profitable plan 

 in the Eastern section is to market wethers at an early age and to fatten 

 the old ewes for mutton just as soon as they have passed their first useful- 

 ness for breeding. With the East growing mainly for mutton and for 

 home consumption, there is practically no competition with the Western 

 rangers, who look for wool rather than finest quality of mutton. In the 

 southwest Merinos still hold their own because of their "rustling" ability 



