160 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



ment that a ram, raised on liis farm, yielded 7 pounds 5 ounces of 

 washed wool. Dr. James Mease, of Philadelphia, published a descrip- 

 tion of a Humphreys ram owned by Mr. Bulkley in 1807. This ram was 

 very small, very fine, and produced but 4 pounds of washed wool. His 

 length of staple was somewhat less than that of Chancellor Living- 

 ston's rams. He was extremely gentle and strongly marked with the 

 carnatiou hue of skin ; had spiral horns and brownness of fleece sur- 

 face, all of which qualities he faithfully transmitted to his progeny in 

 their usual proportions. The brownness of fleece penetrated to some 

 depth from the surface. His lambs, when they came, were covered 

 with coarse hairs, to the great suspicion of their paternity, until it was 

 found this hair dropped off, and that his subsequent crops of lambs 

 exhibited the same peculiarity. Eeferring to this description of Mr. 

 Bulkley's ram Mr. Eandall says, in 1801: 



Here we have a distinct liiut of Paular or Infaiitatlo cliaraoteristies, yet Col. Humpli- 

 reys' slieep could scarcely have been Paulars without some one alluding to their 

 throatiness — a point which then attracted peculiar notice, both because it was un- 

 usual and regarded as unsightly. Besides, the sheep we now have among us, which 

 can trace a clear descent from Col. Humphreys' flock, are not marked by this pecul- 

 iarity unless it has been bred on them within the last fifteen or twenty years (1845 

 to 1861). It can hardly be presumed that the American ambassador would have been 

 placed by his Spanish acquaintances in the hands of an agent who would have pur- 

 chased from an obscure flock, or one not among the first. I do not build uj> a hypoth- 

 esis on the single fact above given; it is only one among a number of scattering 

 hints and circumstances which have led me to the opinion that the sheep were from 

 the cabana of the Duke of Infantado. One thing is certain, no such ram as Mr. 

 Bulkley's could have been of Escurial blood, and the darkest and j^olkiest sheep 

 bred in the United States (Mr. Stephen Atwood's family), which trace directly to 

 sheep bred by Col. Humphreys, can not be descended from the whitest and driest 

 fleeced sheep of Spain, 



Hon. William Jarvis, to whom reference will soon be made, states 

 that these sheep of Ool. Humphreys were pure-blood Transhumantes, 

 and narrates how Humphreys secured them. It was a custom of the 

 Spanish court, when a foreign minister was recalled, to present him a 

 few bars of gold, but as the law of the United States forbade any min- 

 ister taking a present from a foreign court HumiAreys declined it, but 

 suggested to the minister that it would gratify him could a royal license 

 be given him to take out of the kingdom 200 Merino sheep. This the 

 minister stated could not be granted, but intimated that if he wished 

 to take them out no obstruction should be thrown in his way. These 

 were purchased in Lower Leon, or Upper Bstremadura, and driven down 

 the valley of the Mondego to Figuerra, where they were embarked for 

 the United States. Mr. Jarvis says he never could learn out of what 

 cabana these sheep were obtained, but that they were "unquestionably 

 pure-blood transhumantes, which is the only fact of importance worth 

 knowing." 



