60 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



at the sheario g of April, 1806, liad wool measuring 14 inches on tlie back, 

 and whose size was also very great. This capital sheep was transferred 

 to the White House in the county of New Kent, Ya., where his long- 

 wooled race was improved by crossing on it animals of finer quality in 

 the fleece. Mr. Custis thought that he had rather reversed the usual 

 practice, and started a new system, in commencing with the long though- 

 coarse wool, but he found it attended with the happiest effects, and 

 ventured to recommend it as the more speedy and certain method of 

 breeding fine long-wooled sheep. The Arlington Improved, derived 

 from the same source, lost nothing in the fineness of their wool by being 

 originally descended from ancestors whose fleece was less fine. On the 

 contrary, Mr. Custis argued that, unless a race so desirable as theirs 

 could be had at once, the best method would be to rear one upon the 

 foundation of coarse long-wooled sheep. If breeding were pursued from 

 the fine, yet short-wooled sheep alone, very many causes would neces- 

 sarily occur before the staple could be lengthened, and the quality at 

 the same time retained, but in founding a stock upon long-wooled the 

 material quality of length would be possessed at once, and with it prob- 

 ably fineness. William H. Foote, of Hayfield, had a hornless ram of the 

 Arlington Improved, and from this ram, which was a very superior 

 one, and some fine breeding ewes at Arlington was formed the founda- 

 tion of a flock from which went some fine animals to various parts of 

 Virginia and Maryland. 



Bakewell, the prize ram of one year old, bred by Col. Thomas L. Lee, 

 of Loudoun, was exhibited at Arlington sheep-shearing April 30, 1805, 

 where he was shorn. The weight of his fleece was 12 pounds, 5 ounces ; 

 gross weight of carcass, 140 pounds; the ordinary length of his wool 

 was 11 inches; extreme length, 13 inches; the extreme length of the 

 animal, from the nose to the buttock, was 4 feet, 9 inches ; girth of body, 

 3 feet 7 inches, and length of foreleg, from the brisket to the ground, 12J 

 inches. These measurements were made after shearing. It was hoped 

 that after anointing him, a method very prevalent in Europe, his fleece 

 the next year would reach 16 pounds. Mr. Custis tersely describes him 

 as a lengthy sheep, short legs, no horns. 



Four ewes shown by Mr. Custis at this time, and bred by him from 

 the imported ram upon the improved Mount Vernon breed, sheared re- 

 spectively 7^, 7J, 6|, and 6J pounds of wool. A ram lamb 2J months 

 old weighed 87J pounds. 



Although these weights appear but small when compared with the 

 English stock, yet, when the scale of improvement between the two 

 countries is balanced, and the subject considered comparatively and 

 with due reference to the progress and means of improvement in each, 

 they wiU appear even respectable in the country the most distinguished 

 in the world, and in which the science of agriculture and rural economy 

 had been carried to an extent unparalleled. 



At the annual meeting and sheep-shearing, April 30, 1806, many gen- 



