EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI KIVER. 231 



incli to an inch, and a half in length on the back and sides, shorter on 

 the belly, and formed a considerably less compact mass than that of 

 the Spanish Merino. In the best sheep the surface of the fleece was 

 smooth and even (as if it had been cut off at a uniform length), and it 

 broke into masses of same size; but in inferior animals the wool grew 

 in small disconnected tufts, which ended in points externally. These 

 fell apart on the shoulder and along the back, and in some instances 

 partly hung down like hair or Leicester wool, instead of standing at 

 right angles to the surface. The last indicated extreme thinness of 

 fleece. When to this were added a gauzy, half-peeled nose and ear — an 

 ear as thin and almost as transparent as parchment — a pale skin, a 

 carcass without depth and about 6 inches thick, a camel-shaped neck, 

 and long spider legs, the " lower deep " of debility and degeneracy was 

 reached. But there was an atoning beauty about the wool of the Saxon 

 which it was hard to resist. It flashed with such a gem-like luster; it 

 was so beautifully fine and even ; it had such an exquisite downiness 

 of touch, that all other wool seemed base by the side of it. " It was so 

 pliant," says Eandall, " that a lock of it held upright by the outer end, 

 between a thumb and finger, and gently played up and down, would 

 bend and dance like a plume." According to Youatt's measurements 

 the fiber was about -g^ of an inch in diameter, but he did not obtain 

 fine specimens of the wool. Such is the picture presented us of the 

 Saxony Merino at the period of its importation into the United States — 

 the period of its greatest physical degeneracy, for at that time began a 

 reaction in the mode of breeding them. 



The first importation of Saxony Merino sheep into the United States 

 was made, in 1822, by Mr. Samuel Henshaw, a merchant of Boston, and, 

 as stated elsewhere, at the instance of Ool. James Shephard, a woolen 

 manufacturer of Northampton, Mass. The number imported was four. 

 Two went to J. W. Miller, at Philadelphia, and two to Northamp' 

 ton, to Ool. Shephard and Isaac C. Bates. • The fleeces of the two sent 

 to Philadelphia weighed, in the dirt, 17f pounds, and the animals were 

 very superior. Mr. Miller states that the fleeces were covered with tar 

 and dirt, having been two months on board ship, and when washed 

 weighed: First quality, 2 pounds 2 ounces; second quality, 1 pound 

 8 ounces; third quality, 14 ounces; fourth and inferior quality, 2 pounds 

 8 ounces; a total of 7 pounds, or 3 J pounds to each sheep. Mr. Miller, 

 who had a fine flock of Spanish Merinos, near Philadelphia, crossed 

 them with these Saxony rams and had eighty or ninety lambs the first 

 season. From the cross of one ram, sent to Northampton with a Merino 

 flock, there were offered for sale in October, 1824, fifty rams. In 1823 

 Henshaw and Bates made another importation of one ram and three 

 ewes, and on July 5, of the same year, there arrived from Hamburg two 



* Isaac C. Bates and Col. James Sliephard, of Northampton, recently imported two 

 Saxon bucks, whioli have arrived. They were purchased in Saxony more than a year 

 since. (New England Farmer, November 23, 1822.) 



