198 SHEEP INDUHTRy OF THE UNITED STATES 



to whom tliey were consigned. Neither does it appear that any other 

 vessel of our list cleared for a Maine port, all the consignments being 

 entered at Boston. The America, which landed at Boston September 

 24, 1810, had 141 sheep. Twenty-seven of these were dehvered to J. 

 P. Wood, at Wiscasset, and 31 to Messrs. Newall & Watson, at Port- 

 land. Those sent to Mr. Wood were sold late in the season, and brought 

 low prices, Mr. Wood being the principal purchaser. Some of those 

 sent to Newall & Watson died shortly after being put ashore, and none 

 were sold until the next spring, at which time only 17 of them remaine4 

 alive, but 6 lambs had come meanwhile. They were moved elsewhere, 

 and probably added to the flock that Mr. Jarvis finally took to WeatTi- 

 ersfleld, Vt. , 



Either from the small number sold by Mr. Wood and those brought 

 by the Orient, or by purchases made in Boston, Governor Hunton, John 

 Davis, Dr. Hubbard, Gen. Chandler, and Judge Lincoln, all of Maine, 

 were supplied with the Merino slieep in 1810 and 1811, most of them 

 in 1810. These were the first Merino sheep introduced into Maine. 



Twenty-eight vessels, with 2,033 sheep, landed at Boston. Most of 

 these were consigned to those who sold them at private sale or reserved 

 them for their own use. The earliest pubhc sales were by 0. CooMdge 

 & Co., who offered 200 at auction on September 27, 1810. These were 

 Paulars, shipped by Jarvis on the Ontario and Belisarius, and the aver- 

 age price received was about $124 each. Another sale by the same 

 party of 107 realized $13,671, an average of $128 each. Coolidge & Co. 

 made many complaints to Mr. Jarvis that his consignment of sheep to 

 different parties prevented them from keeping up the prices, which they 

 could do if they were given a monopoly. Private sales made early in 

 September realized $110 for each sheep. These low prices, compared 

 to those of March and April, when $500 to $1,500 was given for a single 

 sheep, are attributed to the great increase in the number arriving, nearly 

 every seaport from Boston to Charleston having its arrival of Merino 

 immigrants. On October 4 John Clark sold 30 sheep imported by him 

 in the Amelia, 9 Negretti rams and 21 Paular ewes, and on the 10th W. 

 & T. N. Wood offered at private sale " 25 Merino rams, all that remain 

 of 92 Paulars in the -ffewri/, landed only sixteen days since." On the 

 11th Coolidge & Co. sold 10 rams and 30 ewes, Paulars shipped by Jar- 

 vis, and on the 21st C. Hayward, auctioneer, offered 65 Merino sheep — 

 26 rams, 24 ewes, and 15 lambs — " purchased of the monks of the Con- 

 vent of St. Carlos in Estremadura." The same auctioneer advertised 

 on the 10th, 13 black Merino rams, " selected from the best flocks in 

 Spain." The prices realized in these October sales were a little higher 

 than those of September. The purchasers were farmers of Massachu- 

 setts and Vermont, and the slieep found their way into nearly every 

 county of Massachusetts and into many of those of Vermont and New 

 Hampshire. From a purchase made by a gentleman at these sales in 

 September, 1810, we have this information. His purchase consisted of 5 



