CHAPTER VII 



SHEEP AND WOOL 



LTHOUGH the records of livestock 

 brought by the first settler to Litch- 

 field County are very meager, it is 

 no doubt true that sheep formed part of 

 the early possessions of every farmer. 

 To a people living in a frontier land, where winters 

 were long and tedious and the distance from centers of 

 trade was great, the matter of warm clothing was sec- 

 ond only to the question of food. As the sheep would 

 furnish material for both food and clothing, attention 

 was soon turned to increasing the flocks. 



Notwithstanding the value of the sheep to the 

 farmer and his family, the flocks were so slowly in- 

 creased that in 1660 they were freed from taxes and 

 ground was ordered cleared for their pasturage. Ten 



