EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 603 



In 1880 over one-fourth of the sheep were Merinos and their grades; 

 in 1890 the Merinos did not number one-eighth of the total. Their place 

 was taken by the English mutton breeds, principally by the Shropshires. 

 There are now but a few pure-bred Merino flocks in the State, and these 

 almost wholly in the northern part. Where ten flocks existed twenty 

 years ago but one prospers now. The low price of wool and the greater 

 profit in dairying were the primal causes of the decline, to which more 

 recently has been added the greater demand for a mutton sheep. All 

 these have been fatal to the Merino wool industry. The flne-wooled 

 sheep have been banished from the best farming lands of the State, and, 

 with the exception of some breeding flocks maintained to furnish rams 

 for the far West and in the hope of better days nearer home, and an 

 occasional flock still maintained for wool-growing because the owner 

 knows how to make it pay, they have given place to mutton breeds. 

 Even where the Merino still maintains a precarious foothold there is a 

 disposition for a change from the Vermont type to that so successfully 

 developed in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, a sheep that 

 will weigh 160 to 210 pounds good for mutton, and give a 14-pound 

 fleece, where the carcass and the fleece furnish mutual protection, one 

 jiaying the expense of the other. The rich pastures of Illinois can raise 

 such a mutton Merino and the probabilities point to success in that 

 direction. 



There are some who look to the French Merino as the sheep to bring 

 about this consummation of the best wool on a mutton carcass, and they 

 point to the success attained in Prance in that direction. When the 

 French Merinos were first introduced into the country many were sold 

 to wool-growers of northern Illinois, but were not cared for as they 

 should have been, and, in consequence, fell below their anticipated value. 

 They were very generally discarded and but little if any of the blood 

 remains in that section. There is, however, a flock in the southern part 

 of the State which promises well. It is owned by a farmer who has had 

 experience in raising these sheep in Utah, and who reports that while 

 not yielding as much wool per head as the French Merino in Utah, they 

 are very healthy, the climate agrees with them, and the future looks 

 bright, 



Illinois is liberally provided with breeding flocks of the leading Eng- 

 lish mutton sheep, the Southdowns, the Shropshires, the Hampshires, 

 the Oxfords, the Ootswolds, the Leicesters, the Lincoln shires, and the 

 Cheviots. At the eighth annual fat stock show at Chicago in 1885, all 

 but the Cheviots were represented. Of the 148 animals on show the 

 middle-wool varieties were in tlie majority, numbering in all 49, and 

 consisting of 18 Southdowns, 11 Shropshires, 12 Hampshires, and 8 

 Oxfords. The 33 long- wools were made up of 12 Ootswolds, 13 Leices- 

 ters, 8 Lincolns. A yearling Shropshire was adjudged the best wether 

 in the show. A Canadian-bred Leicester, weighing 346 pounds, took 



