EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 



439 



5 mouths 1 week old. lu Febrnary, 1890, he made the statement that lie 

 had 85 imiDorted ewes (mostly yearlings) that were suckling 139 lambs, 

 and among them were lambs 4 weeks old that weighed from 42 to 60 

 pounds each. 



Mr. Small, who bought two ewes and a ram on September 1, 1887, 

 under date of February 15, 1892, gives an interesting statement regard- 

 ing their fecundity. In October, 1887, each ewe dropped twin lambs, 

 and the following spring twins again. One of the ewes was very old 

 and did not breed regularly, and finally died a year or so later, giving 

 birth to twin lambs. The other ewe after producing the two pairs of 

 twins spoken of dropped five sets of triplets, the last set in December, 

 1891. This makes in all, for the credit of this one sheep, from Septem- 

 ber 1, 1887, to December, 1891, 19 lambs. In July, 1891, Mr. Small put 

 this old ewe and iive of her daughters with a fresh ram, and the result 

 was 13 lambs in December for the 6 ewes, the old ewe and her oldest 

 daughter each triplets, three of them twins each, and one a single 

 lamb. All the lambs were seemingly sound and all right every way 

 when dropped, and the triplets from the old ewe weighed 31:^ pounds 

 the day they were dropped. 



Sheep and wool in Pennsylvania, 1840 to 1890. 



Since the early part of 1890 and to the present day there has been an 

 increasing interest in sheep husbandry, owing to the belief that the day 

 of cheap raising on the public lands of the West is about over, and that 

 sheep will again be a profitable stock. This feeling is especially pro- 

 nounced in the western part of the State. This section has a system of 

 sheep husbandry peculiarly its own, and will be considered later on, 



DELAWARE. 



Merino sheep were introduced into Delaware about 1803, by E. I. 

 Dupont, the foundation of his flock being descendants of Don Pedro 

 and Livingston ewes. In 1805 Don Pedro was taken to Delaware, and 

 Mr. Dupont increased his flock to such an extent that in 1810 it was 

 probably the largest single flock in the United States, from which went 

 many sheep to found or improve the other flocks in Delaware, Mary- 

 land, and Virginia. The legislature encouraged fine- wooled sheep hus- 

 bandry, and so popular did it become that in 1814 there were many 

 thousand faU and mixed bloods in the State, principally in the vicinity 



