EAST OP THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 473 



tlie common mountain scrub ewes wMcli were very fine, approacWng 

 in appearance to tlie pure-bred. This and other similar experiments 

 with mountain sheep leads to the conclusion that the Cheviots, the 

 black-faced sheep of Scotland, and allied breeds, bred to live upon 

 the herbage and rough growth of the elevated moors, would thrive on 

 the mountains running from northern Georgia on the south, through 

 North Carolina, East Tennessee, the two Virginias, and to Pennsylvania 

 on the north. 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 



Although South Carolina was the first State in which an eftbrt was 

 made to encourage the importation of the Merino, it was not the most 

 forward in availing itself of the early arrivals in the Northern States. 

 It was thought by the planters of the State that great advantages 

 would be derived from raising a wool that would mix well with cotton, 

 and several trials were made in that direction with the wool of the 

 native sheep, which was very fine and considered the equal of English 

 wool, if not superior to it. These trials were so successful and the cloth 

 so produced from the native wool so satisfactory, both as to cost and 

 quality, that in May, 1808, Henry Izard purchased from Dr. James 

 Mease, of Philadelphia, a Merino ram believed to be of the Humphreys 

 flock, descended from the Humphreys ram owned by Thomas Bulkley 

 and loaned to Dr. Mease. Immediately following this other Merinos 

 were brought from the North into various parts of the State. But the 

 greater part of those raised were mixed bloods. The easy acclimation 

 of these sheep at the northward, and the great profit derived from them, 

 joined to the persuasion that they would thrive equally well in South 

 Carolina, induced several merchants to import a few of the mixed breed 

 from the Northern State.', and some full-bred Spanish Merinos into 

 Charleston. The progeny throughout the State was superior in form 

 and size to the parent stock, and the fleeces were decidedly finer, show- 

 ing its great advantage and the practicability of adapting it to the 

 State. But the Merino did not enthuse the South Carolina people. Cot- 

 ton was their staple and they wanted none better. The importations 

 of 1810 and 1811 furnished them a few of the full-blooded Merino, as 

 elsewhere stated, but at no time did they display that avidity for them 

 that characterized the people of the Eastern and Middle States. They 

 were satisfied apparently with the three or four kinds of sheep they had, 

 the most remarkable and the only one worthy of observation resembling 

 the Southdown, described as having no horns, its legs and face gray, 

 head and upper part of the neck thick, the pile planted closely on the 

 pelt, fleeces unmixed with hairs. An individual experience with the 

 Merino is given in an extract from the address of Dr. John S. Bellinger 

 before the BarnweU District Agricultural Society, in 1821 : 



Sheep answer well on our pine lands, and when we reflect that a considerable por- 

 tion of the clothing of our inhabitants consists of domestic fabrics, the improve- 

 ments of our stock by the Merino breed appears well worthy the attention of the 



