EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 361 



to breeders for tlie great triumph in sheep-breeding during the last 

 thirty years. They have kept abreast the march of improvement where 

 they have not led, and challenge inspection of their flocks to prove their 

 assertion that for fine wool growing they stand second to no stud flocks 

 of the country. They also call attention to the fact that when, a few 

 years since, the Japanese Groverument sought to improve its live stock, 

 the selection of Merinos was made from New York, principally from 

 the flock of J. J. Brainard. 



Before the introduction of the Merino sheep by Chancellor Living- 

 ston and the effort he made to desseminate them, very Kttle attention 

 had been paid in New York to sheep of any kind. But the introduc- 

 tion of this improved sheep was the turning point in the sheep hus- 

 bandry of the State, and we may add, of the nation. At first they were 

 held so high and wool was so low that it was difl&cult to incite interest 

 in them, but when wool rose in price and the numerous importations of 

 1810 and 1811 brought the sheep down from $1,000 and even $1,500 to 

 $10, many farmers sought them and were enabled to get them, either in 

 full or on shares. Large flocks were sent into the interior on specula- 

 tion by the importers, and they became generally diifused over the 

 State. But when prices fell so low, notwithstanding that fine wool 

 always maintained its value equal to, if not better than, any other agri- 

 cultural production, the speculative holders and dealers of the Merinos 

 lost interest in them; consequently, many large flocks were broken up 

 and destroyed. Some of the animals fell into the hands of small hold- 

 ers, some were allowed to cross on common sheej), while others went 

 to the butchers or to the hogs. Such, in brief, was the history of the 

 Merino sheep in New York, as well as other States, which, in 1809 and 

 early in 1810, were valued from $800 to $1,500 each, and which were 

 freely sold for $1 each in 1815. Notwithstanding the great losses suf- 

 fered by some, mostly speculators, fortunately, the introduction of the 

 Merino sheep into New York was of vast importance and bestowed 

 upon her substantial and inestimable benefits. Over and above the 

 intrinsic value was the attention it drew from the farmers to sheep 

 husbandry, which is undeniably the foundation of all good farming. 



It can not, however, be maintained that prior to the advent of the 

 Merino sheep we had any system of sheep husbandry, nor did we have 

 much to speak of until many years later. In New York, especially, 

 which raised in 1820 about one-fourth of the sheep of the United States, 

 this branch of rural economy, perhaps of more importance than any 

 other to the State, was sadly neglected. With a few rare exceptions, 

 near the large cities or where the farmers still clung to a few Merino 

 sheep, the farmer had from twenty to fifty mongrel animals living at 

 large upon the hundred acres of his farm, breeding promiscuously from 

 their own wretched progeny and yielding a scanty return of i^erhaps 

 2 'pounds of indifferent wool per annum a head ; whilst to put all chance 

 of improvement at the greatest possible distance the best lambs were 



