EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 575 



INDIANA. 



At the first settlement of this State there were two varieties of the 

 so-called common sheep introduced. First, the sheep from the Eastern 

 States, stnall, beautiftil, and hardy, giving 2^ to 4 pounds of wool. It 

 lived in the woods, generally took care of itself, was very prolific, and 

 made fair mutton, for which, however, it was but little used, being 

 raised principally for the wool used in the family manufacture. There 

 was another variety of sheep imported first into Georgia, then into North 

 CaroUna, and thence to Morgan County, Ind., at its first settlement. 

 From Morgan, as a center, it spread into the southern interior counties. 

 This sheep was known as the Moravian. It had a brown nose and a 

 face similar to the Southdown. The wool was very white, and on the 

 hams was mixed with hair. 



There were a few Merinos introduced into Indiana while it was yet a 

 Territory. In a very few cases they were full-bloods ; some were high 

 grades. The earliest full-blood flock was that of George Rapp. In 

 1814 Mr. Eapp moved his flock from Harmony, Pa., to Xew Harmony, 

 on the banks of the Wabash River in Posey County. Here large tracts 

 were devoted to sheep-grazing and wool-growing, and the manufacture 

 of woolens was set up, which consumed the wool grown by the flock 

 and also that grown for many miles aroimd in Indiana and Illinois. 

 Wool from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi was also sent to this 

 factory. In 1824, Mr. Rapp and the community of which he was the 

 head, removed to Economy, Pa., taking most of the Merino flock with 

 him; but its stay often years in southwestern Indiana had done much 

 to supply that region and southeastern Illinois with many full-blood 

 and half-blood sheep. A few were carried across the Ohio River into 

 Kentucky. 



The Merinos found their way gradually into the southeastern part of 

 the State by the river counties of Ohio and from the flocks of Wash- 

 ington County, Pa. There were some in Franklin County as early 

 as 1819, and in the following year Pegg & Davis, of Brookville, adver- 

 tised wool carding, both common and Merino wool, having a new 

 machine from the East and hands experienced in the business. Other 

 carding machines were put up on the West Fork of the White River, 

 and their owners solicited the patronage of the public in carding Merino 

 and common wool grown in southeastern Indiana and southwestern 

 Ohio. 



From 1820 to 1840 the progress of fine-wool industry in the State was 

 very slow; in fact it may be said that there was no progress. A few 

 Ohio half-bloods and Michigan grades were brought over the borders, 

 and an occasional Pennsylvania sheep came down the Ohio to the river 

 counties, but very little was done to improve the breed of sheep — the 

 coarse-wooled, leggy, and light-bodied sheep of the country. Wheat, 

 corn, and hogs were the principal crops of the Indiana farmer, and he 



