EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 263 



celebrated slieep of Vermont. He died in 1850, tlie proijeity of Mr. Eli- 

 tharij. Black Buck was sold to C. B. Cook, of Vermont, the Atwood 

 ram sold to D. & G. Cutting, and the George Atwood ram, sold also 

 to D. & G. Gutting, Shoreliam, Vt., were additional channels through 

 which the Atwood blood found its way into many of the Vermont flocks 

 and laid the foundation of others. 



Another noted flock of Connecticut was that of Jacob K". Blakeslee, 

 of Wiitertown, and we give the history of it as furnished the Cultivator 

 by Mr. Blakeslee in 1844: 



My pure-bloods are the offspring of some of the first that ever came into the United 

 States, brought into the country by David Humphreys in 1802, which were a present 

 to his -wife by her father. After a few years two pairs of them were purchased by 

 Daniel Bacon, of Woodbury, Litchfield County. They were kept in their pure state 

 till 1811. There was then an importation of the Guadaloupe sheep by a company 

 formed in Litchfield County, John De Forest, supercargo. They arrived at New 

 Haven, and were sold at auction January 17, 1811. There was one full-blood Escu- 

 rial buck, which was purchased by Daniel Bacon at $275, and was crossed upon 

 those sheep that came by the way of Mrs. Humphreys. He continued this cross till 

 1816 or 1817, when he sold his Escurial buck to William K. Lampson. He kept his 

 sheep pure till the introduction of Saxony sheep. He then sold the remainder of his 

 flock to Daniel Martin. I began a flock of sheep in 1815 that were imported by Peck 

 & Atwater, New Haven. A part of them were the Negretti and a part Montarco. I 

 let them run together till 1823. I then procured the use of a buck for three seasons, 

 bred by Daniel Bacon from his Escurial buck. The average weight of the fleeces of 

 the stock from this buck was 4 pounds, and the wool brought me 10 cents a pound 

 more than the original stock. In 1828 I purchased a buck that was raised by Daniel 

 Bacon. From that time down to the present (1844) I have kept that blood pure; this 

 flock is now a cross of three sorts of Spanish sheep, and perfectly clear from native 

 or Saxony blood. My farm is not a healthy farm for sheep, and of course they are a 

 little under size. They are a full, round, handsome bodied sheep, with shortish legs 

 and a very round neck. They have very heavy fleeces for their size. Their wool is 

 a long staple, a great deal of crimp and very compact at the outer end. They have 

 generally wool about their face and on their legs down to their feet. After taking 

 great pains to wash them, the average weight of their fleeces this season was 3J 

 pounds, and there are very few flocks of Saxony sheep that are finer. Mr. Samuel 

 Lawrence, of Lowell, who has had this wool for four seasons past, has given his opin- 

 ion that there is no Merino wool that compares with it. This improvement has been 

 made by a cross of the different breeds. I am decidedly of the opinion that there is 

 no full-Wood animal equal to a cross; the reason I give is that there is no perfect 

 animal on the face of this earth ; where an animal is imperfect you can never remedy 

 the defect by the use of an animal that has the same defect. 



This statement is incorrect in some points. The buck spoken of as 

 being purchased by Daniel Bacon was not an Escurial but a Guada- 

 loupe, and the importation spoken of as being made by Peck & Atwater 

 was in reality made by Abraham Heaton and others, and consisted of 

 30 Guadaloupes and 12 Negrettis. But the main facts remain that Mr. 

 Blakeslee's flock was made up from the two importations into Ifew 

 Haven, December 27, 1810, and January 3, 1811, consisting of Infan- 

 tados, Guadaloupes, and liTegrettis, and that afterwards he purchased 

 rams bred by Daniel Bacon, descended from the ram imported in the 

 Bellona, January 3, 1811, and described by Mr. Heaton as of superior 



