EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI EIVER. 359 



Seneca County, where he settled at Lodi. lu 1815 or 1816 he removed 

 to what is now the adjoining county of Schuyler, and Eobert Herty 

 purchased from him a ram whose fleece weighed 14 pounds. Several 

 colonies sprang from this Negretti flock and the blood was generally dis- 

 seminated throughout Seneca and Tompkins counties. In 1811 Col. 

 Troup, agent of the parties connected with the Holland purchase, sent 

 four Merino rams for the use of the settlement at Geneva, Seneca Lake. 



James Wadsworth took a Livingston ram, for which he paid $1,000, 

 to Ontario County as early as 1808, and General Wadsworth founded a 

 flock in Genesee County, from which L. A. Morell commenced his flock 

 of 500 sheep, the half from the Wadsworth flock and half from the best 

 common sheep he could procure. 



Humphrey Howland, of Aurora, Cayuga County, laid the foundation 

 of a Spanish Merino flock in 1824 or 1825, that up to 1850 averaged 

 2,000 in number. The soil of his farm was a rich, calcareous loam, pro- 

 ducing good crops of wheat, corn, and grass. The statement made by 

 him in 1850 regarding his flock is of interest. For eight years, or up 

 to 1832, he bred the Spanish Merino pure, then he crossed with the 

 Saxon. The cost per pound for growing fine Saxon wool was about 28 

 cents, and the average weight of the fleece was 2J pounds. The cost 

 of growing Spanish Merino wool was 22 cents per pound, and the aver- 

 age of the fleece 4 pounds. The Saxon wool sold at 38 cents, and the 

 Spanish Merino wool at 31 cents. It was not any more, if as much, ex- 

 pense to raise Spanish Merino wool per pound as to raise common 

 coarse wool. The Saxon Merino wool was much the finest, but the 

 animal did not have the constitution of the Spanish Merino. The weth- 

 ers of the latter were worth 50 per cent more than the Saxon, and were 

 nearly equal to Southdown for mutton. His flock was then fine 

 Saxon, but he was crossing them with the Spanish Merino, such as he 

 first kept. One ton of hay produced 28 pounds of Saxon wool, or 36 

 pounds of Spanish Merino wool, and one ton was sufficient for 11 Saxons 

 or 9 Spanish Merinos during seventeen weeks of winter foddering. 

 The Spanish Merinos would eat coarser provender than the Saxons, 

 and were rather more profitable than the latter, and 40 per cent more 

 profitable than such sheep as were common in the State previous to 

 the introduction of Merinos. The proportion of lambs annually reared, 

 to the number of ewes, was, of Saxon Merino, 40 per cent, of Spanish 

 Merino 60 per cent, if they had lambs at 2 years of age. 



On the slight revival in wool-growing between 1820 and 1830 some 

 fine flocks were formed, some of which have been perpetuated to the 

 present day. About 1822 John Johnston, of Geneva, purchased about 

 500 Merinos from Hon. E. S. Eose, then a noted breeder of Seneca 

 County. In 1823 a Mr. Hoppin, of Madison County, brought from 

 Berkshire County, Mass., 4 full-blooded Merino rams, and the next year 

 5 rams from Hinsdale, Mass., and 12 from the fine flocks of Pittsfleld. 

 In 1824 Josiah Short, of Hemlock Lake, Livingston County, began a 



