304 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



of which he purchased of Messrs. Grant & Jennison, Walpole, IST. H., 

 who certified to Mr. Sanford that the sheep were pure descendants 

 of the Jarvis importations, and about the same time Mr. Wright 

 purchased 1 ewe from Mr. Jarvis, and four or five years after 13 ewes 

 of J. T. & V. Eich. Other blood has since been introduced, and 

 the flock is still in existence, the property of D. J. Wright, Shore- 

 ham, Vt. One of the noted stock rams of the day was bred by Mr. 

 M. W. C. Wright, about 1846. His sire was Fortune, bred by Tyler 

 Stickney in 18M, and his dam an excellent ewe, bred by William Jar- 

 vis. The ram was Black Hawk, and weighed about 100 to 110 pounds. 

 Dr. Eandall, writing in 1862, speaks of this flock as uniting the three 

 most distinguished families of American Merinos — the Jarvis Paulars, 

 the mixed Leonese, and the Atwood Infantados. The rams from this 

 flock were scattered widely through l^Tew York, and they and their 

 descendants gave much satisfaction to purchasers wishing to breed for 

 a high quality of wool. 



A noted flock was that of George Campbell, of Westminster, Vt., 

 founded in 1839, by a purchase of 20 ewes of Humphreys blood, and 20 

 of Mark Crawford, of Jarvis and Humphreys blood. In the same year 

 a pure Jarvis ram was purchased of Daniel Mason, and in 1842 another 

 was purchased of William Jarvis. These rams and some bred from 

 them were used until 1847, in which year 5 ewes of Atwood and Jarvis 

 blood were purchased of IS^athan Gushing, and a ram lamb of Ebenezer 

 Bridge, of Atwood and Jarvis blood. This ram was used until his death, 

 in 1861, when Young Wooster, a ram of Cutting or Ehode Island blood, 

 was introduced into the flock, and in 1862 8 Atwood ewes and 15 of the 

 Atwood, Eich, and Jarvis blood were added to the flock. In 1840 the 

 average yield of wool per head of his flock did not exceed 3J pounds. 

 Each successive year gave a larger yield ; the clip of 1850 was 4f pounds 

 per head, and that for 1851 was a fraction over 5 pounds of well- washed 

 wool, aside from a quarter of a pound of taggings. During the whole 

 time there was a gradual increase in fineness. In breeding, Mr. Camp- 

 bell sought to establish a flock which would produce the largest growth 

 of wool for the amount of hay consumed. Qixantity and quality of 

 wool, with a hardy constitution, were the leading objects he kept in 

 view. The means employed to effect this were: First, the selection of 

 such rams as possessed these characteristics in a high degree; second, 

 discarding every ewe that produced either a light fleece or one not of a 

 good grade of fineness ; and third, feeding in such a manner as to 

 develop and maintain in the animal a high degree of vigor. By these 

 means he affected a gradual and highly satisfactory improvement in his 

 flock. 



From Sweepstakes and his own stock Mr. Campbell bred the cele- 

 brated 12 sheep which took the three prizes at the International Exhi- 

 bition at Hamburg in 1863, and established the fame of the Vermont 

 Merino in Europe. The number of sheep entered for premium was 



