94 



SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



as far as English-speaking settlers had gone, they were mixed descend- 

 ants of various English breeds, with a few individuals of improved 

 varieties in favored localities, and were of the long-wooled type. South 

 of Georgia to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, in the pine woods of the 

 South Atlantic and Gulf coast, in the Southwest, in Texas, and away 

 across the continent to the Pacific coast, were found the degenerate 

 descendants of the early Spanish importations, the American scrub of 

 the present day, fast disappearing under good breeding and Merino 

 crosses. A few Merino sheep were to be found in Massachusetts, ISTew 

 York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Kew Jersey, Delaware, and Ohio. A 

 new era in sheep husbandry now opened, with the Merino as its founda- 

 tion, and to its history, introduction, and dissemination we shall devote 

 some space, after a brief sketch of the household woolen industry which 

 it was destined to supplant. 



Number of sheep and value thereof exported from the Vnited States from the year ending 

 September SO, 1790, to year ending September SO, 1816. 



