484 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



range for flocks, and at tte same time sheltered valleys and nooks, 

 where protection is offered from storms and winds. It is no uncommon 

 thing to see sheep fed out in the open field the entire winter, but the 

 practice is less common than formerly. 



The native sheep of this region, as distinguished from more recent 

 stock, were from several sources — from New England, from Kew York, 

 and from Virginia. They were hardy, long-legged, and coarse- wooled, 

 with the speed and endurance of a foxhound. They furnished a good 

 wool, which answered the purposes of the early pioneer industry, and 

 which was converted by the aid of backwoods fullers, hand looms, and 

 busy fingers of the women into garments which supplanted buckskin, 

 but this wool was not of a quality to compete in the market with that 

 produced in the older settled country. Falling-mills were numerous, 

 and every house had hand cards and as many spinning-wheels as there 

 were females in the family. The wool was carded and spun in the 

 household and then sent to the fuUing-mill. 



The coarse- wool sheep soon gave way to the fine-wool Merino, and 

 from the first introduction to the present day the people have been, to 

 a greater or less extent, employed in breeding Merino sheep and rais- 

 mg Merino wool. The industry took a firm hold on the farmers and 

 became the commanding agricultural business of a large portion of the 

 population. The business was suited to the country; every farmer that 

 could do so engaged in it and many of them grew rich. The product- 

 ive acreage of the country was not largely increased, but the fertility 

 of the worn-out lands of some sections was restored by sheep husbandry. 

 Here superfine Saxony wools were grown to perfection. Saxony flocks, 

 numbering sheep by the hundreds and thousands, became acclimated 

 and hardy and produced wools that enriched tlieir owners, and some of 

 these flocks still exist. The most of them, however, were long since 

 superseded by the heavier- wooled Delaine, the Black-Top and other 

 Merinos. The Saxon, the French, the Silesian and the Vermont Span- 

 ish Merino have all been tried, but the general conclusion at the present 

 day is that the varieties of the American- Spanish Merino, improved in 

 stamina and form, enlarged in carcass, and having the weight of fleece 

 almost doubled by a long course of patient and careful breeding, are 

 for all purposes the most valuable descendants and representatives of 

 the original Spanish Merino which can be obtained. 



In 1804 George Eapp introduced Merino sheep into Harmony, Butler 

 County, Pa., where he also erected a large woolen factory aud com- 

 menced the manufacture of broadcloth from the wool of these sheep. 

 The Merinos were special objects of attention, and were used in some 

 cases by the neighboring farmers to improve their own flocks. It is 

 beUeved that Mr. Eapp's flock was founded on the Humphreys Meriuo. 

 In 1811 it was said to consist of " one thousand sheep, separated in 

 three divisions. The first were all of the Merino breed, the most of 

 them fuU-blooded; the second about half Merino and half common; and 



