259 



To Charles B. Trego, Alfred L. Ehvyn, and George M. Justice, Esquires, Com- 

 mittee of the American Philosophical Society, appointed to examine the 

 wools presented by His Majesty, the King of Saxony, to Peter A. Browne, 

 of Philadelphia. 



Gentlemen. — The Kingdom of Saxony is divided into four cir- 

 cuits, and fourteen counties, and the specimens I now exhibit to you, 

 (numbering 628) represent the animals belonging to the principal 

 stock sheep-folds in all the circuits, and in nearly all the counties ; 

 so that the cabinet may be considered as presenting a fair view of 

 the existing state of sheep husbandry in Saxony. 



Saxony is the smallest kingdom in Europe; containing, according 

 to some writers, 5300, and according to others, 5640, square miles; 

 having, for its area, about one-eighth that of Pennsylvania, and about 

 one-eleventh that of Virginia, yet it is said to maintain 25,000,000 

 of sheep. They export annually an immense quantity of wool, and 

 their own manufactories of that article employ 25,000 people. 



To be perfectly satisfied that their sheep are of a very superior 

 kind and that their wool is of the finest sort, you have only to ex- 

 amine these specimens, and compare them with the samples of fine 

 wools brought by Mr. Fleishman, from most parts of Europe, at the 

 instance of the Federal Government. 



How did Saxony become possessed of this inestimable treasure? 



According to the celebrated agriculturalist, M. Thaer, Germany, 

 before the introduction of the merinos, had three varieties of sheep ; 

 neither of which were held in high estimation. In 1765, Augustus 

 Frederick, then elector of Saxony, procured from Spain, 200 merinos, 

 which he placed at Stolpgen, in the County of Hayn, and Circuit of 

 Dresden. Against this innovation, popular prejudice at first ran 

 high, but it gradually subsided with the progress of experiment; and, 

 in 1777, so much had these sheep risen in public estimation, that the 

 Elector determined to import 300 more. The agent sent to Spain 

 could procure only 110, and of these many died during and soon 

 after the transportation; but they, like those previously obtained, were 

 selected from the best Spanish flocks; and then commenced the cele- 

 brated establishments of Rennersdorf, in the County and Circuit of 

 Bautzen and of Lochmule, in the County of Niederforchheim, in the 

 Circuit of Zwickau. It was upon this comparatively slender founda- 

 tion that the art of sheep breeding was erected in Saxony. But it 

 could never have attained its present great celebrity, but for the rigid 



