EAST OP THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 627 



vania he represented them as pure-bred sheep, and it would seem in- 

 credible to believe that intelligent men could have been imposed ujiou 

 by grades and culls, or that Mr. Dickinson could have been guilty of 

 such deception. Nor could Mr. Dickinson truthfully have said that lie 

 never sold any of the ewes descended from his own pure bred flock, for, 

 when writing to a friend that in 1826 he had sold Bolivar to Dike and 

 Duncan, he also said that with him he had sold a number of the pur- 

 est and finest Merino ewes, and such sales by him were frequent. 



In 1823 James McDowell became an employd of Mr. Dickinson, and 

 there was still in the flock one ewe of the original Humphreys importa- 

 tion from Spain, which was the subject of Mr. Dickinson's frequent 

 solicitation and of his conversation, and he assured Mr. McDowell tliat 

 the descendants of that and the other ewes had been bred pure, and 

 were superior to his other flocks and to the Caldwell sheep, both in 

 quahty and smoothness of body. James McDowell remained with Mr. 

 Dickinson until the latter's misfortunes, after which, and the passing 

 of the Merino flock to Adam Hildenbrand, he went into the employ of 

 the latter, still caring for the sheep. A part of the consideration given 

 by Mr. Hildenbrand to continue in his employ was a selection of the 

 best two ewe lambs and the second best ram lamb of the last crop of 

 lambs bred by Mr. Dickinson, descended from the marked Humphreys 

 flock, and sired by Bolivar, the winner of the silver cup in 1826. This 

 was in 1831, and the three choice spring lambs were then at the side of 

 their dams, and sired by Bolivar. Bolivar was sold in 1826, as we have 

 seen, but being in the same county could have been used by Mr. Dick- 

 inson on the flock. 



These three lambs, one ram and two ewes, were the progenitors of 

 James McDowell's flock, which he affirms has been bred pure to the 

 present day, and is known as the Dickinson Spanish Merino, and 

 claimed as the purest Humphreys sheep known. It has a registry and 

 the breeders have adopted a scale of points: 



Dickinson-Merino sheep standard of excellence. 



[Standard of breeding. Purity of blood. Tracing their descent to the standard bred ilock of James 

 McDowell, of Canton, Stark County,Ohio (withoutadmixtureof impure Mood), -which ilockdeacends 

 directly from the thoroughbred flock of W. E. Dickinson, of Ohio, which were purely bred from Merino 

 sheep imported from Spain to the United States by Col. David Humphreys, of Derby, New Haven 

 County, Conn., in the year 1802.] 



Deep, round, wide and lonir. showing mutton capacity, good feeding and thriving qualities, 

 heavy, thick flesh, straiglit under and top lines, well proportioned, filling every pait of its 

 skin when fully matured 



Skin thick, soft, not raised in corrugations, pink red 



Head small, carried high ; quiet, placid eye ,. 



Koae wliite, not motiled, covered with fine, soft white hair, wide and sUghlly arclie<l 



Bars short, thick, covered with fine, glossy hair 



Horns small, neatlv curved, light yellow color, better without any horns 



Neck short, arched in under and o'n top, the base very strong 



Shoulders wide, deep, rounded, breast bone projecting forward of front limbs 



Back straight, wide, ribs extending out horizontal from spinal column, rounding in lino with 

 shoulders, extending close back to hips 



Scale of 

 points. 



