478 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



on whose plantation this company had been stationed, gave the men as 

 a present a full-blood Merino ram, to be conveyed to the upper country 

 for their mutual benefit. He certified that it was of pure Spanish 

 blood, and of the best flock that ever came to America. 



We lose all trace of the full-blooded Merino in the State until 1847, 

 when Richard Peters purchased a farm in Gordon County in order to 

 try sheep-raising in connection with other stock. He obtained 100 

 native ewes, and after a trial of the Cotswold, Southdown, Oxford, and 

 Leicester, purchased, in 1850, a flock of pure-bred Spanish Merinos, and 

 was remarkably successful with them. Writing in 1878, he said that 

 he had tested the Spanish and French Merinos, and also the South- 

 down, Oxfordshire Down, Leicester, Asiatic broad-tailed, Tunisian, im- 

 proved Kentucky Cotswold, and native sheep. He had also crossed 

 nearly all these varieties, and those between the Spanish Merinos and 

 native, and the Cotswold and native, had proved most profitable. For 

 general purposes of wool and mutton he recommended most decidedly 

 the cross from native ewes and Spanish Merino rams, the progeny 

 showing marked improvement, having constitution, fattening proper- 

 ties, thriftiness, and a close, compact fleece. For long combing-wools 

 the best flock that could be built up was by taking the native ewes as 

 a basis, using the Spanish Merino rams for the first cross, and then 

 the Cotswold, to give more size and longer staple. Mr. Peters' Merino 

 sheep were very healthy. If the winters were mild they required feed- 

 ing about thirty days; if cold and wet, twice that time. In 1871 Mr. 

 Peters added to his flock 25 Merino ewes purchased in Vermont at an 

 expense of $1,000. 



In 1868 Dennis Johnson, of Calhoun, Ga., reported his experience 

 with sheep, extending over many years. He had tried aU the breeds 

 and was successful only with the Spanish Merinos. The cross between 

 the Spanish Merino and common ewes proved a perfect success, the off- 

 spring being large, healthy, and strong, very prolific, and good nurses. 

 In 1853 he sheared 250 pounds of wool from 50 head. The flock grazed 

 upon woods range in summer and blue grass pasture in winter, with no 

 extra feed, except an occasional allowance of a little bran. 



Mr. Eobert C. Humber, of Putnam County, in middle Georgia, reported 

 to the commissioner of agriculture of Georgia that he kept 138 sheep 

 of a cross between the Merino and the common stock. They cost him 

 nothing except the salt given them, while they paid 100 per cent on 

 the investment in mutton, lambs, and wool. They yielded an aver- 

 age of 3 pounds of wool per head, which was sold in 1875 at the 

 very low price of 25 cents. It cost nothing except the shearing. His 

 sheep ranged on Bermuda grass— old fields in summer, and the planta- 

 tion at large, embracing the fields from which crops had been gathered 

 and the cane bottoms in winter. They were never fed at any season. 



