EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI EIVEE. 225 



wars, by the importation of Danish, English, and Turkish rams, and 

 the effort was measurably successful, but it was reserved for the Span- 

 ish Merino to insure complete success, and it was in Saxony, at the 

 beginning of the present century, that naturalization had obtained the 

 most marked success and produced the most beneficent results. The 

 different varities of sheep indigenous to the country, some of which 

 had a good quality of wool and others a very coarse wool, were equally 

 improved by the Spanish animals introduced into Saxony in 1765 and 

 again in 1778. 



In the former year Prince Xavier, administrator of the Electorate, 

 during the minority of the elector, Frederick Christian, having before 

 him the experience of Sweden, and seeking to repair the devastation 

 caused by the " Seven years' war," obtained permission of his brother- 

 in-law, the King of Spain, to take from Spain 300 Merinos and intro- 

 duce them into Saxony. Two hundred and twentyuiiie were selected 

 from the best Spanish flocks — 23 of them Escurials — and shipped from 

 Cadiz in May, 1765, in charge of a Spanish mayoral or chief shepherd. 

 Mnety-two rams and 128 ewes arrived safely in Saxony, and a commis- 

 sion was appointed whose chief object was to distribute the rams to 

 landholders, either by actual sale or letting at reasonable rates, so as 

 to improve all the native sheep of Saxony and to make the culture of 

 fine wool as general as that of inferior quality formerly had been. The 

 zoological gardens at Stolpen, near Dresden, on the frontier of Bo- 

 hemia, at first were prepared as a depot for the distribution of these 

 sheep, where they were taken and entrusted to the care of the Spanish 

 shepherd who had brought them from Spain. The domains of Milkel, 

 Maxon, Klipphausen, Oberau, and Grlauschnitz were the first to enjoy 

 the ben efits of the improvement. TJ i at part of the importation retained 

 at Stolpen the shepherd kept unmixed, with the view to ascertain how 

 far the pure Spanish breed could be naturalized in Saxony. In March, 

 1774, there remained at Stolpen 5 only of the original importation and 

 392 of their pure-blooded progeny. 



It was found after a lapse of ten years that the pure Spanish breeds 

 had preserved their qaaUty, that they had not degenerated, and that 

 the product of the cr'jss breeding had acquired a wool which yielded 

 to those of Spain neither in fineness nor in beauty. 



When experience assured the commission that it was easy to accli- 

 mate the Merino and to improve the native sheep by means of cross 

 breeding it occupied itself with the general improvement of the flocks, 

 after having castrated weak and defective rams. It sold in 1776 to 

 farmers animals of the age of four years, but as the prejudice against 

 everything new was as strong in Saxony as elsewhere, and the major- 

 ity of sheepmasters still averse to the improvement, sales moved slowly 

 and with difflculty. But the Elector, determined to accomplish his 

 object, compelled the farmers and tenants occupying the Electoral 

 lands to buy a certain number of Merino sheep. 

 22990 15 



