EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI EIVEE. 639 



bandry of the State is safe in tlie liands of its breeders of broad views, 

 zeal, and industry. 



The Michigan agent of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, in his 

 report for January, 1891, states that sheep were then considered the 

 best stock that a Michigan farmer could keep, and gives reasons: 



The price of lambs, fit for feeding, lias, perh.aps, more to do with the advance of 

 sheep than the price of wool. For three years past the produce of our flociis has 

 been sold for feeding or fed by the farmer himself. The result is a depreciation of 

 the flock, which to some extent has been kept up by the purchase from other States. 

 This year the ewe lambs only are saved. This will of course show an increase in the 

 future. The mutton breeds are now the most popular. 



WISCONSIN. 



Sheep were not introduced into Wisconsin prior to 1837, as before 

 this time wolves were so numerous and destructive as to discourage it. 

 In that year some were taken from Illinois into Walworth County, and 

 the census of 1840 returned but 3,462 in the entire Territory. The iirst 

 introduction of the Merino blood was made in 1842. In that year Lewis 

 Clark, of Genesee County, F. Y., arrived at Beloit, with 250 ewes, 

 selected on account of form and hardiness, from a iiock of about 800, 

 raised by himself from two purchases of Spanish and Saxon Merino, 

 the greater part being of the former. Mr. Clark began his farming 

 operations in Genesee County, ZST. T., and about 1828 commenced to 

 improve a flock of native sheep by the use of Spanish rams. In 1835 

 he purchased 200 flue sheep, being one-half of what was known as the 

 Carter flock of Spanish Merinos, of the Humphreys blood, then owned 

 in Livingston County, N. Y. The year following he made another pur- 

 chase in the same county of 100 fuU-blood Saxony sheep. There was 

 at that time a flue-wool fever, and the rivalry between the Saxony and 

 Spanish Merino exceedingly sharp. Mr. Clark used rams of both breeds, 

 and iucreased the size of his sheep and weight of fleece. The rams 

 used by him later were pure-blood Spanish Merinos from Vermont. 

 The increase from his original flock went into southern Wisconsin and 

 northern Illinois, and had some influence in the formation and charac- 

 ter of the flocks in that section. 



In 1843 David Brooks, of Livingston County, N. Y., and Curtis Haw- 

 ley and Allen Eose, of Ontario County, prospected in northern Illinois 

 and southern Wisconsin to find a good location for keeping sheep. 

 The search resulted in the arrival of Mr. Brooks and Mr. Eose, at Troy, 

 Walworth County, Wis., in August, 1844, with 1,000 ewes driven from 

 western and central ISTew York. The ewes were considered good ones, 

 and were of the Spanish and Saxon blood, the result of crossing in two 

 breeds The flock was Isept together in Troy for one year, and then let 

 to different parties in Walworth and adjoining counties, and in north- 

 ern Illinois. 



In 1844 Mr. N. B. Clapp, of New York, cuamorcd with the beauties 

 of the far West, which he had visited the preceding year, determined 



