IMPORTATIONS TO THE UNITED STATES 



205 



Merino was coming to the front and the French sheep did not get a 

 favorable reception in the East. When California began to be a 

 place of importance, shortly after the gold craze of 1849, these 

 French sheep were gathered up and sent to the Pacific coast, where 

 they served as the foundation stock of the California French 

 Merinos. 



Although a few breeders in Ohio and Michigan bred Eambouillets 

 in a rather quiet way, it remained for a German, Baron Von 

 Homeyer, to introduce 'the Rambouillet as such to the United States 



FIG. 139. Rambouillet ram, C-type. Bred by University of Illinois, sold at auction, 

 Salt Lake City, August, 1917, for $675. This sheep shows no wrinkles on the body and his 

 conformation indicates the mutton qualities characteristic of the C-type. 



and to attract the attention of the sheep breeders of this country 

 toward them. This he did at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago 

 in 1893 through W. G. Markham, of Avon, New York, who acted as 

 his American agent. Baron Von Homeyer's sheep were so excep- 

 tional in size and shape that people gazed on them in wonder. To 

 the breeders of American Merinos they seemed an almost impos- 

 sible creation out of Merino blood. But they were what was wanted, 

 for the wool market was depressed and the demand for mutton was 

 rapidly growing, and just as soon as the country began to recover 

 from the financial panic following 1893 these sheep attained a 

 popularity that has never waned (Figs. 138 and 139). 



