EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 547 



Spreck's floct of Saxonies iu 1849, by Charles B. Smith, of Wolcottvilic\ 

 Conn., and were bred in-and-in for ten years, and were then considered 

 better than the original sheep when imported. This flock and that of 

 Mr. Armstrong were still pure-bred sheep in 1863, and from them the 

 flocks of Columbiana were freely and generously crossed. In 1834 a 

 full-blooded flock was founded by Henry T. Kirtland, of Mahoning 

 County. The foundation was 2 rams and 12 ewes brought from Dutchess 

 County, N. Y., by Cope and Marsh, of Columbiana County. Frequent 

 additions were made from the flocks of Henry D. Grove, of New York; 

 Samuel Patterson and Samuel Cole, Washington County, Pa. ; Mark 

 E. Cockrell, Tennessee; Charles B. Smith, of Connecticut; Perkins and 

 Brown, Akron, Ohio, and from other Ohio flocks. Perkins and Brown 

 obtained their Saxons from the flocks of Samuel Whitman, Connecti- 

 cut; Col. Jenison, Walpole, N. H.; and of Frederick Brandt, Carroll 

 County, Ohio, who brought over his sheep in company with Henry D. 

 Grove. Their mixed-blooded Saxons were selected from the best flocks 

 of Washington and Beaver, in Pennsylvania, from the counties of Brooke 

 and Ohio, in Virginia, and from Columbiana and Stark, in Ohio. In 

 1845 the full-blooded and mixed Saxon flocks numbered 1,300 head. 

 At that time no more than 59 pounds of wool had ever been taken from 

 20 head of the flock. In 1840 Hugh Elliott, of Auglaize, formed a flock 

 from the Saxons of western Pennsylvania, and in 1843 Isaac C. Hull, 

 of Perry County, founded a flock from Pennsylvania ewes and used 

 full-blood rams from New York. John S. Hull formed a full-blood flock 

 four years later. In 1848 Alva Udall, of Portage County, obtained 

 from S. B. Crocker, Oneida County, N. Y., the foundation of a full- 

 blooded flock, which he continued to breed pure and in such manner as 

 to secure a good constitution, short legs, round compact body, full 

 breast, and in time they became a hardy sheep. Mr. Udall sheared of 

 clean washed wool, on the average, 3 pounds, the flock through. In 

 1862 he crossed the ewes with Silesian rams, obtained from W. H. Ladd, 

 of Jefferson County, with a view of increasing weight of fleece, without 

 essentially increasing the size of fiber. In Harrison County Samuel P. 

 Johnson formed a Saxon flock which, in 1851, numbered over 400. In 

 the year named he moved from Harrison to Logan, taking with him 100 

 of the choicest ewes of the flock. To these he added 30 ewes from the 

 flock of Samuel Patterson, Washington County, Pa. Up to 1856 he 

 bred chiefly from rams he had brought with him from Harrison County. 

 Convinced from his experience that the Spanish Merinos were the best, 

 he obtained a Hammond ram from Vermont and changed his flock to 

 Spanish Merinos, averaging in 1862 4J pounds well- washed wool. A 

 later Saxon flock was that of William Croskey, also of Harrison County. 

 Mr. Croskey considered his sheep the hardiest that were bred in Ohio, 

 Pennsylvania, and the West Virginia region, and the wool paying as 

 well as any other. His fleeces averaged 3| pounds, and sold straight 

 through in 1876 for 65 cents a pound. One of his rams died at the 

 agQ of 22 years, He did not house his sheep; spnie of them had 



