576 SHEEP INDUSTKY OF THE UNITED STATES 



raised scarcely enough coarse wool to keep his family iu wooleu goods. 

 In 1840 there were 657,982 sheep in the State, yielding 1,237,919 pounds 

 of wool, or a trifle less than 2 pounds per head. From this time there 

 was a great advance in the number of sheep and quality of the wool. 

 Some high-grade Merinos were brought into the northern counties from 

 Michigan, and into the southeastern counties from Ohio and Pennsyl- 

 vania, and by 1845 there were Spanish Merino grades. Saxony grades, 

 and half and quarter-blood Wells and Dickinson and Washington 

 County, Pa, sheep. The Spanish Merino grades came principally from 

 Michigan and Ohio, the Saxon grades from western Pennsylvania. 



In 1845 Dr. A. 0. Stevenson and Alexander Black introduced into 

 Putnam County two flocks of flne-wooled sheep, from which many rams 

 were subsequently sold, to the great improvement of the common flocks 

 of the country. Dr. Stevenson's flock was pure-blood Spanish Merino, 

 and said to have been the first full-blooded flock of the kind introduced 

 into the State. His clip of wool in 1853 sold for $3,000, which indicates 

 that his flock then numbered over 1,500 head. It is hardly possible 

 that they were all full-blood sheep. The flock was dispersed about 

 1860. The flock of Mr. Black was from Washington County, Pa., and 

 either full or high-grade Saxon; probably a Spanish Merino and Saxon 

 cross, then in high repute in western Pennsylvania. This flock was 

 kept up many years and yielded 2| pounds of well-washed tagged wool. 

 In 1853 his clip sold for $4,000, which, witli wool at 60 cents, would 

 indicate a flock of nearly or quite 2,500 head. In 1856 this flock was 

 considered the best flne-wooled flock in the State, and in 1867 could 

 hardly be excelled in the United States. It had usually carried away 

 the premiums at the State fairs. From these two flocks many smaller 

 flocks were formed in Putnam County, which soon became the center 

 of the fine- wool industry of the southern middle of the State. 



In 1850 the number of sheep in the State was 1,122,493, yielding 

 2,610,287 pounds of wool, or an average of 2.32 pounds per head. The 

 number of sheep had almost doubled in ten years; the yield of wool 

 had more than doubled, and the yield per head had increased one-third 

 of a pound, due entirely to the improvement of the sheep. Indi- 

 ana, however, could scarcely be called a fine wool-growing State. 

 Her principal crops were corn, wheat, and hogs. The introduction of 

 high-class sheep was not general, and investigation showed that, in 

 most ot the counties of the State, wool was grown for family use only; 

 to grow it for market was not considered profitable. In Tippecanoe 

 County a few of the flne-wooled sheep had been introduced, but through 

 careless breeding they had degenerated. The prairies were unsuited 

 to them. In Elkhart County a few enterprising farmers had brought 

 some Michigan Merinos and crossed them with common sheep for wool 

 and mutton together. M. E. Hull, of Fayette, had some Merinos which 

 sheared him 4 pounds of wool per head. Laporte County flocks were 

 on the increase; there were 25,000 sheep, averaging 2| pounds of wool;j 



