EAST OP THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 331 



bought the remainder of the flock — 12 rams and 58 ewes. The Shakers 

 at Lebanon had fine flocks which they maintained for many years, 

 and by which they made much reputation and profit from the purity 

 of the blood and the fineness of the wool. A Guadaloupe flock was 

 bred pure by J. K. Sawyer, of Sahsbury, as late as 1848, when 25 rams 

 and 100 ewes were sold from it to H. K. Fritz, of Jackson, Mich. In 

 1854 Mr. Sawyer crossed his flock with the French Merino, and the 

 average yield of wool was increased to 5 pounds each. 



By 1835 the raising of wool was fast becoming the business of l^ew 

 Hampshire landowners, to which their productive meadows and fine 

 pasturage on the hillsides contributed. Mr. Jennison, of Walpole, had 

 370 sheep. Fifty-four of these were pure Saxony ewes, the others 

 mixed Saxony and Spanish. Of the 54 Saxony ewes, 4 were barren; 

 from the remaining he raised 48 lambs. The average yield of his Saxony 

 sheep was 2^^^ pounds of wool and his lambs brought him $15, for which 

 the demand exceeded his supply. A Mr. Hodskin, of Walpole, had 800 

 sheep. From 200 Saxon ewes he raised 183 lambs; his experience was 

 200 lambs from 225 sheep. The wool of the Saxons averaged 2/^ pounds 

 per sheep. He gave them salt twice a week and 100 sheep required 10 

 tons of hay to carry them through the winter. In 1835, Luther B. 

 Stevens, of Olaremont, sheared 1,130 pounds of wool from 301 sheep, 

 mostly Spanish Merinos. One fleece from a three-year-old Spanish 

 Merino ram, when washed and tagged ready for market, weighed 9 

 i)ounds 12 ounces, the heaviest fleece then known in the country. 



An experiment showing the hardiness of the Merino cross on the 

 common sheep of Kew Hampshire is of interest. A farmer wintered a 

 a flock of 75 by browsing and a gill of corn a day to each. Snow was 

 on the ground most of the time; they were not in the barn all winter 

 and came out well in the spring. Their good condition was attributed 

 to plenty of exercise in the fresh air and the green food they secured 

 by browsing in the fields and woods. 



The fluctuations in the price of wool, the depredations of dogs and 

 other causes were unfavorable to the maintenance of pure bloods and 

 fine-wooled flocks, and by 1850 there were very few pure in the State, 

 most of the sheep being crosses of the Spanish and Saxon Merinos 

 with the common sheep and yielding 2J to 3 pounds of wool. The in- 

 dustry revived from 1851 and more wool was grown and more attention 

 paid to sheep. By 1854 there was a medley of all kinds and all grades. 

 There were goodly numbers of Saxons and Spanish Merinos and their 

 grades in the hills and on the rough lands, but where pasturage was 

 good the native, the Irish, the Southdown, Leicester, and Cotswold 

 were found more profitable, and wherever it could be done the raising 

 of mutton was substituted for the growing of wool. 



In 1840 the Merino fleeces of New Hampshire averaged 2 pounds 6 

 ounces; in 1849, 3 pounds; in 1856, 4 pounds; and in 1862, 4 pounds 11 

 ounces. 



