EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 139 



the cession of Louisiana to the United States in 3803. He left France 

 in 1805, and after his retirement from pubHc service devoted much 

 time to agriculture. He was connected with Eobert Fulton in his 

 efforts to navigate the waters by steam, and, after a life of varied use- 

 fuhiess, died at Clermont, on the Hudson, February 26, 1813. New 

 York counts him one of her distinguished sons, and in the hall of stat- 

 uary in the Capitol building at Washington has placed his statue in 

 graceful and enduring bronze. 



Writing in 1809, Chancellor Livingston said that the hope of acquir- 

 ing such information in agriculture and the arts as would be useful to 

 his fellow citizens, was not one of his smallest motives for accepting 

 a foreign mission. Among other objects his attention was forcibly 

 attracted to one then occupying the minds not only of the agricultur- 

 ists, but the statesmen of Europe. It had long been the belief that the 

 Merino sheep could only be raised advantageously in Spain, and that 

 their yearly migration was necessary to the perfection of their wool. 

 Under the influencq»of this opinion, the rest of Europe submitted to be 

 tributaries of Spain for this precious commodity; and so slow was the 

 progress of agricultural improvement that, though Mr. Alstroemer had 

 naturalized them in Sweden eighty years before, in a country little con- 

 genial to their native habits, yet it was long before his successful exper- 

 iments excited public attention. France, after some abortive attempts, 

 succeeded so fully as to open the eyes of the neighboring nations. Liv- 

 ingston saw and admired her beautiful flocks; and the inquiries he had 

 the means of making of intelligent men from different parts of Europe 

 convinced him that, instead of degenerating, they had improved in every 

 region to which they had been transported. Knowing the United States 

 to be peculiarly adapted to short- wooled sheep, he was eager to put 

 them in possession of this invaluable stock. He hoj)ed to attain his 

 object by selecting two pairs of the finest Merinos he could find and 

 sending them to the United States under the care of one of his serv- 

 ants, believing that so small a shipment would not be noticed and 

 intending to follow them by others. They arrived safely in the spring 

 of 1802, '' and were, I believe," said Livingston, " the first couples ever 

 imported into the United States." 



They were purchased from the French national flock at the veteri- 

 nary school at Chalons, and on their arrival were treated exactly like 

 his other sheep — fed on hay and had no shelter. They brought two 

 lambs the first year, and three of them (he had let his brother have one 

 of the rams) sheared 11 pounds of washed wool— nearly 3 pounds 12 

 ounces each. The next year the lambs came in January, were neg- 

 lected, and died. In 1805 one of the ewes was sick and brought no 

 lamb; the other dropped a ewe lamb; and the five fleeces (from the 3 

 old sheep and two shearlings) when washed weighed 18 pounds, besides 

 the tags and waste wool, upwards of 3 pounds 8 ounces each. 



Mr. Livingston made another importation of a single French ram in 



