590 SHEEP INDUSTRY OP THE UNITED STATES 



was a purchase in 1826 of 40 ewes at the sale of John Guile's sheep, at 

 Pawlet, Yt. Mr. G-uile bought these sheep of Isaac Bishop, GrranviUe, 

 N. Y., and Bishop, it is said, bought them of Eichard Crowningshield, 

 by whom they were imported in 1823, regarding which Mr. Kelley says 

 he remembers William Jarvis as saying: " Orowningshield's importa- 

 tion was the best ever made in the United States. He was a man of 

 good judgment, and had been here long enough to know what was 

 wanted for this climate, and had gone back and selected accordingly." 

 We are of the opinion that Mr. Crowningshield made no importation 

 in 1823, but that the sheep coming into Mr. Kelley's possession were 

 the descendants of those shipped by Mr. Jarvis from Lisbon in 1810, 

 and purchased by Mr. Crowningshield, for many of this blood were 

 bought by Mr. Bishop and taken to Washington County, N. Y. Mr. 

 Kelley's first purchase of rams was of William Jarvis, in the fall of 

 1826. At the same time his father and Hosea Barnes bought two rams 

 of Mr. Jarvis, using one two years and then exchanging. In 3827 Mr. 

 Kelley added to his flock 9 ewes, bred by Jacob H". Blakeslee. These 

 were inferior to the first 40 bought of Mr. Guile; they were taller, 

 shorter-wooled, and not as strong constitution. 



In 1829 Mr. Kelley bought a Saxony ram of Isaac Bishop, and the 

 next year another one. The ewes served were kept separately, and in 

 1833 all the Saxony blood was sold from the flock, and the breeding 

 continued in the pure Merino line. 



In 1833 he bought 4 rams of WilUam Jarvis, with Samuel Griggs, 

 keeping 2 of them for four years and then exchanging with Mr. Griggs. 

 Thesewereverystiperior rams, 1 of them superior to any thathad crossed 

 the Alleghany Mountains up to that time, shearing 18^ pounds of clean 

 washed wool, the heaviest fleece known at that date. In 1833 he bought 

 a ewe from a Long Island flock, but not proving a good one she and her 

 increase were discarded from the flock, which was further increased in 

 1836 by the purchase of 40 ewe lambs, said to have been pure Atwood 

 blood ; but at shearing time they showed an inferiority and were dis- 

 posed of, most of them immediately, 4 a few years later. In 1846 he 

 bought one ram of Stephen Atwood, and in following years other rams 

 from the best Vermont flocks, but in all instances where the progeny 

 was inferior it was rigidly excluded from his flock. In 1855 he pur- 

 chased ewes of several parties in Vermont, wliich, not coming up to 

 his standard, were disposed of, and in 1857 he purchased 83 ewes of 

 Horace Barnes. These ewes were bred from the flocks of Mr. Kelley's 

 father and those of Edwin Hammond, of Vermont. In 1859 he bought 

 the remainder of his father's flock of ewes, 2G3 head, and in 1864 a 

 choice ewe of German Cutting and in 1865 two more of the same flock.* 



From this large and superior flock, averaging over 1,000 sheep for 



nearly thirty years, many Western flocks laid their foundation, and some 



of the blood, it is claimed by Mr. Kelley, was taken back to Rhode Island 



and Vermont to invigorate the old flocks of those Stites, and hundreds 



* Tlie American Merino Sheep Eegistcr. 



