146 MERINO SHEEP 



were the Arlington sheep, derived from stock im- 

 ported by Washington, the male a Persian ram, 

 the mothers Bakewell ewes. They seem to have 

 been a valuable breed of long-wooled sheep, but 

 are now unknown. 



The first importation of Merino sheep on record 

 is that of William Foster, of Boston, who in 1793 

 brought over three from Spain and gave them to a 

 friend, who had them killed for mutton, and, if the 

 sheep were fat, I doubt not found it good, and 

 wished there was more of it. In 1801 four ram 

 lambs were sent to the United States by two 

 French gentlemen. The only one that survived 

 the passage was owned for several years in New 

 York, and afterward founded some excellent grade 

 flocks in Delaware. Randall says of him: "He was 

 of fine form, weighed one hundred and thirty-eight 

 pounds, and yielded eight and a hah* pounds of 

 brook-washed wool, the heaviest fleece borne by 

 any of the early imported Merinos of which I have 

 seen any account." 



What was then considered fine form would 

 hardly take that place with our modern breeders, 

 and the then remarkable weight of wool was not 

 more than a quarter that of the fleece of many of 

 the present Americans of the race; these last, how- 

 ever, not brook- washed nor even rain- washed. The 

 next year Mr. Livingston, our Minister to France, 

 sent home two pairs of Merinos from the Govern- 



