542 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



imported Saxony rams. These rams they bred from for a number of 

 years until they had nearly ruined his flock, which meanwhile had 

 been removed to Ohio. More than thirty years' careful breeding with 

 the best Spanish Merino rams failed to entirely eradicate the Saxon 

 blood, a streak of that cross occasionally cropping out in the flock. C. 

 G. Brundage, in 1847, started a flock by the use of ewes brought from 

 the Baker flock in Kew York and rams from the Ohio flock of A. C. 

 Baker. WiUiam Eandall formed a fine-wooled flock in 1835, E. Jones, 

 jr., in 1827, E. Dorsey in 1837, Daniel Brown in 1839, and Basil ISTorris, 

 William Amory, and Eobert Phaw in 1840. From this time to 1860 

 there were many flocks formed from these already established in the 

 county and by importations from New York and Vermont. Of the 

 latter it was said that many were sold from 1857 to 1862, some of them 

 good sheep, but most of them no improvement on the old stock and in 

 many instances decidedly not so good. 



Wyandot County lies directly south of Seneca, and its flocks were 

 originally made up of sheep driven in from Huron, Seneca, Lorain, 

 Medina, Portage, Stark, Eichland, and Knox counties, of aU grades, 

 from the line Spanish Merino down to the long, coarse wools, and they 

 so continued until the Pennsylvania, New York, and Vermont Merinos 

 came in from 1850 to 1856, and in 1860 the wool was classed as mostly 

 Merino and mixed. Crawford County adjoins Wyandot on the east, 

 and began its fine- wool growing by the improvement of the common 

 sheep. Dickinson rams and those from western Pennsylvania, called 

 " Fairtop " Merinos and Saxon grades, were used until 1850, when a 

 great deterioration of the fleece was seen, to correct which the Vermont 

 Merino came in, followed in 1852 to 1854 by the French Merino. The 

 French Merino was soon abandoned; they were too tall and too lengthy, 

 and too hard to keep. Wood County, northwest of Seneca and Wyan- 

 dot, gave an average yield per head in 1850 of but 2J pounds of wool. 



Fulton County adjoins the State of Michigan. The first sheep came 

 into the county about 1840, a few bony-legged natives and grades of 

 Saxony and Spanish Merinos, from the interior counties of the State. 

 About 1850 William Sutton introduced some Spanish Merino rams from 

 New York, and about 1852 or 1853 several lots of French and Spanish 

 Merinos were brought in, which improved the quality of wool to a great 

 extent. The increase in the.number of sheep was not rapid until 1860, 

 at which time there were but few flocks of fine- wool sheep in the county, 

 and in 1863, though the number had doubled since 1858, but few flocks 

 numbered more than 100 and but four exceeded 400. But a fourth of 

 the farmers kept sheep, and most of these not over 25 to 40 in a flock. 

 But from 1863 greater interest was excited not only here, but in every 

 part of the State. 



But two of the flocks herein mentioned find notice in the OhioEegister. 

 Previous to 1860 there was not much attention paid to the pedigree, and, 

 we may add, to the purity of the sheep. New flocks were now formed 

 and some of them have preserved their record. 



