336 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



this county were popular among mutton eating people. An essential 

 service was rendered this county and Penobscot by the importation 

 made into the British province of New Brunswick of the pure Leicester 

 sheep. Charles Perly, of Woodstock, made these importations and the 

 sheep became known as the Perly breed. They were large, coarse- 

 wooled sheep and were well adapted to the country, though there was 

 an objection to the full-bloods, as their wool grew 8 to 10 inches long, 

 and, parting on the back, exposed the animal to storms. Some rams 

 clipped 17 pounds. The various grades of this sheep were driven by 

 hundreds yearly into Aroostook and Penobscot, and thence into other 

 parts of the State, and when crossed with the common sheep and 

 Merino grades were considered very valuable for hardiness, large 

 quantity of mutton, and heavy fleece. They were the favorite mutton 

 sheep for the Bangor market. 



Sheep increased in Maine from 466,976 in 1830 to 649,274 in 1840, and 

 decreased to 451,677 in 1850. In 1800 the number was 452,472, or an 

 increase of but 895 in ten years. The average yield per head of wool 

 was 2.25 pounds in 1840, 3 pounds in 1850, and 3.30 pounds in 1860. 



Notwithstanding the great decline in iine-wool growing in the Eastern 

 States, from 1835 to 1860, Maine preserved some of her flue flocks and 

 at a shearing in 1867 made this showing as to weight of fleece and length 

 of staple : Nine full-blood Merino rams, three grade Merino rams, and 

 three fiill-blood Merino ewes were weighed and shorn. The average 

 live weight of the nine rams was 126| pounds, the heaviest being 149 

 pounds, the lightest 99 pounds. The average weight of the fleece was 

 15| pounds, the heaviest being 20 pounds 8 ounces, the lightest 10 

 pounds 10 ounces. The staple ran from 2J to 3 inches, the average 

 being 2.71 inches. Three grade Merino rams, whose average weights 

 were 108 pounds, gave an average of 13^ pounds of wool each, of 2.66- 

 inch staple. Three full-blood Merino ewes, averaging 68 pounds each, 

 the lowest 51 and the highest 82J, gave an average each of 8 pounds 14 

 ounces of wool 2^ inches long. The average age of the rams was three 

 years and a half, that of the ewes two years and two months. 



The war of the rebellion caused a great increase in sheep-raising from 

 1862 to 1865, the Spanish Merino taking the lead. Many Merino rams 

 were purchased in Vermont and crossed on the many mixed breeds of 

 the State, the Saxon and Spanish Merino grades, the Leicester, the 

 Southdown, the Cotswold, and the old native, and in 1864 there were 

 more sheep than at any other period since 1840, the number exceed- 

 ing one mUlion. The decline from 1865 to 1870 was from 1,041,724 

 to 434,666, or a loss, 607,058 in five years. But the improvement from 

 1840 to 1870 had been so great that the 434,666 sheep of 1870 pro- 

 duced more than 300,000 pounds of wool in excess of the amount 

 produced by 649,264 sheep in 1840. In 1840 it took 40 sheep to pro- 

 duce 100 pounds of wool; in 1870 25 sheep would produce the same 

 amount. There was a revival in the industry from 1870 to 1880, and 



