EAST OP THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 365 



were accustomed to pork, while in Great Britain those classes fed 

 entirely upon fat mutton. The butchers almost all agreed that mutton 

 from 15 to 20 pounds a quarter would be more profitable to the grower 

 as well as the retailer. 



Satisfied with this reasoning, Mr. Featherstonhaugh determined at 

 once to procure some of the finest rams of the mixed Leicester and Tees- 

 water breed and couple them with his Merino ewes. In this manner he 

 hoped to raise the carcass of his flock from 8 pounds to 18 pounds a 

 quarter, and still have a quality of wool on hand sufficiently fine to com- 

 mand a ready sale — a sort of half-Leicester, half- Merino wool. Accord- 

 ingly, in the fall of 1819, he selected 200 very fine Merino ewes and had 

 them tupped by some heavy English rams with moderate fleeces. The 

 ewes lambed in March, and from the first the lambs were very much 

 like their sires. The lambs increased in size the next summer far 

 beyond the Merino lambs which had been dropped at the same time. In 

 October most of them were even heavier than their mothers, having car- 

 casses from 30 to 40 pounds. The next shearing time they averaged 4 

 pounds of wool a head, and among many of the best of them 5 pounds, 

 clean washed on the back. The wool was equal to what was called 

 average half-blood Merino wool, some much finer. It was all sold im- 

 mediately for 50 cents a pound. This experiment was so satisfactory 

 that the whole of the Merino rams were discarded and the breeding was 

 done entirely from the best English rams obtainable. The ewe lambs 

 dropped from this cross in 1820 had attained a fine growth in the fall of 

 1821, and in the spring of 1822 produced a crop of lambs three-fourths 

 blood which, in November, 1822, were equally admirable for their size 

 and even fineness of their fleece. The experience already gained led to 

 the belief that a breed could be established that would be invaluable, 

 yielding at three years of age 16 to 20 pounds to the quarter, and 6 or 

 7 pounds of wool of a long staple and equal in fineness to the ordinary 

 half-blood Merino. 



But not many farmers had the intelligence and means to convert a 

 flock, and but few had the patience. Most farmers want their sheep 

 made to hand with as little trouble to themselves as possible. Besides, 

 but few sheep could be obtained from which to breed. The possession 

 of breeding stocks became a necessity. There was an earnest demand 

 for long-wooled sheep in New York and throughout the Middle States 

 and Virginia. As early as 1810 the Alexandria (Va.) Gazette criticised 

 the mania for Merino sheep as likely to lead to the neglect of the com- 

 mon or long-wooled sheep, which were needed for mutton and to fur- 

 nish wool for the coarser manufactures, blankets and worsted, and at 

 this time and subsequent thereto attention was called to the necessity 

 of improving our common sheep, so called, both by carefnl selection and 

 breeding and the importation, when practicable, of new blood; and 

 that while our wool had been greatly improved by the Merino and 

 crosses of it what was wanted was the Lincolnshire and Leicester for 



