640 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



to take a flock of sheep to Wisconsin. He purchased in Dutchess 

 County, K". Y., some hundreds of Spanish Merinos with a strong cross 

 of Saxon blood, considered at the time as far better than the pure 

 Spanish Merino and costing more money. He set out with the usual 

 outiit of a pioneer — a pair of horses, a canvas- covered wagon, blan- 

 kets, cooking utensils, etc., accompanied by two men and two shepherd 

 dogs to care for the sheep. Through the State of New York more were 

 added to his flock from time to time, as he could purchase to please him, 

 of a coarse grade of sheep, until his flock numbered over 1,400. After 

 leaving the State of l^ew York pasturage cost nothing, his sheep feed- 

 ing mostly on the roadside as they moved slowly along, avoiding the 

 thickly- settled country and the towns. They arrived near Kenosha, 

 Wis., in the fall, with no decrease in numbers and in good condition. The 

 flock was kept together and pastured on the open prairie for some years 

 until fencing shut them up, when they were disposed of and disseminated 

 through the adjoining counties. All the rams used to cross on them 

 were Spanish Merinos brought from the East. In a paper read before 

 the Wisconsin Sheep-Breeders and Wool-Growers' Association in 1885, 

 I. J. Olapp said that within the four years preceding he had seen some 

 of the descendants of the same sheep that had characteristics of the 

 Saxony remaining, although nothing but Spanish Merino rams had been 

 used from the day that they were originally brought into the State. 



In 1849 Mr. J. F. Brooks, son of David Brooks, took to Bast Troy 

 about 500 Merinos, nearly all ewes, principally from the flocks of Leroy 

 & Newbold, of Livingston County, N. Y. These sheep originally came 

 from Vermont. For some years rams were brought from western New 

 York to cross upon this flock, and the descendants and those from the 

 flock of the elder Brooks gave character in a large degree to many of 

 the flocks of good sheep so often met in after years in Walworth and 

 the adjoining counties. 



These first flocks were of mixed Saxony and Spanish Merino, and not 

 until 1846 does it appear that any of the pure Spanish sheep were intro- 

 duced into the State. In that year Mr. H. B. Burritt brought one ram 

 and one ewe from the flock of Eeed Burritt, his father, at Watkins, IST. 

 Y., to the town of Muskegon, Wis. In 1850 another ram and ewe, and 

 in 1853 10 ewes more, were brought from the same flock, all pure-bred 

 Spanish Merinos, descended from the original purchases made by Eeed 

 Burritt from Stephen Atwood, of Connecticut, and W. E. Sanford, of 

 Vermont. In 1855 H. B. Burritt sold his flock to J. D. Buckett, of the 

 same place, and in 1860 or 1861 5 ewes of the flock were sold to A. and 

 P. Humbert, of Caldwell's Prairie, Wis., and were the foundation of the 

 flock now owned by them. 



In 1847 Steven Biirrows, of Whitewater, received a pure-bred Spanish 

 Merino ram and ewe from central New York, and Almon Atwood, of 

 Waupun, made an importation from the flock of Edwin Hammond, Ver- 

 mont. About the same time W. P. Benson, of Johnstown, brought in 



