EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI KIVEE. 297 



divided by the owners, Mr. Beedle receiving one-lialf, Charles Rich a 

 fourth, and Mr. Wright a fourth. A few of the Beedle flock have 

 descended to this day, unmixed with other than Merino blood. It is 

 not known that the Wright flock has been bred pure, but from that 

 portion of the Cock flock turned over to Charles Rich much of the 

 pure Spanish blood of the present flocks has descended. Charles Rich 

 died in 1824 and his flock descended to his two sons, Charles and J. 

 Thurman Rich. Of these two sons Mr. Chapman says : 



The rich pecuniary recompense, and the meed of fame these men and their heirs 

 have since received, is but a portion of what they deserve as a reward for the judg- 

 ment and firmness exhibited by resisting the popular mania for Saxony fineness and 

 blood. When Jarvis, Atwood, Blakeslee and almost all gave way, John Thurman 

 and Charles Rich stood firm. It is true that the first three named, with a few others, 

 discovered their error in time to retrace their steps, and save to us much of the good 

 old blood ; but their j udgments were fascinated and bewildered by the mania for 

 fine wool that swept over the land between 1824 and 1836, vitiating the blood and 

 constitutions of nearly all the flocks of fine-wooled sheep, depleting the pockets and 

 destroying the hopes of their owners. 



The Charles Rich branch of this flock was bred pure and unmixed 

 with other blood until 1836, when Charles Rich sold to Erastus R. Rob- 

 inson 100 of his ewes, and to Tyler Stickney the few selected lambs 

 that were reserved when the sale to Robinson was made, thus laying 

 the foundation of two most justly celebrated flocks. 



Erastus R. Robinson continued to breed the Rich sheep in the same 

 line or Cock family until 1845, when he introduced a strain of Atwood 

 blood by the use of the Elitharp ram Atwood to 20 ewes, and by the 

 purchase of the ram Elitharp a year later. An addition of 30 ewes was 

 made to the flock in 1848 by a purchase of Mr. Prosper Elitharp. These 

 ewes wore mainly if not all bred by Mr. Elitharp and combined the blood 

 of the Cock, Humphreys, and Jarvis flocks. The ram that was used 

 more than any other, and the one that made the greatest improvement 

 in the flock, was bred by Mr. Robinson. He is known as the old Robin- 

 son ram, descended from Atwood ram Elitharp and a Rich ewe and was 

 sold to Tyler Stickney in 1853. He became celebrated as a stock ram, 

 living to the age of 13 or 14 years. He weighed about 100 pounds, and 

 sheared about 14 pounds. His' horns were heavy and of the Paular 

 pattern. 



Soon after the introduction of the French Merinos into Vermont in 

 1842 Mr. Robinson procured a ram of this blood, which he used to a 

 third of his ewes one year. These ewes were selected so as to represent 

 a fair average of the flock. The result of this cross was a large increase 

 of the size of the carcass, but a decided decrease in the average weight 

 of fleece, thus very largely decreasing the average of wool to live 

 weight, and very materially increasing the cost of the wool, while the 

 quality was not so good as that grown on the other portion of the 

 flock. This cross, proving so unsatisfactory, was soon weeded out and 

 sold from the flock. At the death of Mr. Erastus R. Robinson in 1854 



