teASt OP THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 299 



accoTlnt of the great depression of the sheep industry in his time. He 

 weighed in full fleece 165 pounds ; was symmetrical in outline, and well 

 proportioned. His fleece was very dense and covered him well at all 

 points. It was about medium in quality, fairly crimped, and heavily 

 charged throughout with a buff oil. Staple about 2 J inches long. He 

 had a finely shaped and well-covered head, and heavy and closely turned 

 horns. His first fleece was 17 pounds; the third, his heaviest, was 34^ 

 pounds. Mne fleeces weighed 243 pounds, or an average of 27 pounds 

 each. He was sold at 2 years of age to J. L. Parker, Whiting, Vt., who 

 took him to Samuel Griswold's place, Oorfii, If. T., where lie left some 

 excellent heavy shearing stock. He was repurchased by Mr. Stickney, 

 and died in 1875. 



Of the flocks of Charles Eich, Erastus B, Eobinson, and Tyler Stick- 

 ney, Mr. Albert Chapman says : 



It will readily be seen that they came finally to possess the same three bloods, the 

 Atwood, Jarvis, and Cock. Although the proportions might differ somewhat, in the 

 main and substantially they were the same. The individual tastes of each may have 

 somewhat varied their practice as breeders, and consequently may have affected the 

 characteristics of the individual sheep that were bred in their flocks, but when we 

 call a sheep's blood Eich, Stickney, and Robinson, we mean oue bred from their flocks, 

 and combining the bloods of the Atwood, Cock, and Jarvis flocks. 



John T. Eich, son of Charles Eich, came into possession of one-half 

 his father's flock in 1836, the flock founded in 1823. He sold none of 

 his ewes until 1838, at which date he sold two, one to L. C. Eemele and 

 one to Judge Wright, and gave each of them one. He continued to 

 breed in the Cock or Paular line by rams bred within the flock until 

 1841, when he introduced a ram bred by William Jarvis, and selected 

 from his flock. At this date his flock consisted of about 150 breeding 

 ewes, with a due proportion of young shoep. Mr. Eich also bred a 

 Jarvis ram to some of his ewes in 1842, and soon after the Atwood 

 blood was introduced by using Elitharp's ram Atwood to a few ewes in 

 1845, and by other rams subsequently. In 1844 Mr. Eich sold 110 ewes 

 to Joseph Sheldon, of Fairhaven, Vt. At the death of Mr. Eich, Octo- 

 ber 12, 1846, the flock was inherited by his two sons, John T. and Vir- 

 tulan Eich. The rams that were the get of the Jarvis ram were not 

 used in the flock, and a part of the ewe lambs also were sold out and 

 the flock continued to be bred in the Cock or Paular line, the rule with 

 John T. Eich being to breed back, using rams that showed pedi- 

 gree through the sires direct to the Cock flock. By a careful investi- 

 gation it was ascertained that in 1874 the blood of the flock was about 

 five-sixths Paular; the two-thirds of the remaining one-sixth Hum- 

 phreys; and the remainder Jarvis blood, other than Paular. John T. 

 Eich died September 27, 1876, and the flock became the property of 

 Virtulan Eich, the present owner. 



Dr. Henry S. Eandall, who visited this flock, says: 



These sheep in 1840 were heavy, short-legged, broad animals, full in the quarters, 

 ,Btrong-boned, with thick, short necks and thick coarse heads. The ewes had deep 



