SAXON MEfelNOS INTEODUCBD. 26 



Saxon Merinos Inteoduced. — The woolen tariff enacted 

 in 1824,_gaTe a new impulse to the production of fine-wool, 

 and during that and the four succeeding years Saxon Merinos 

 were imported in large numbers into the United States. A 

 detailed history of these importations was embodied in a 

 report on sheep which I made to the ISTew York State 

 Agricultural Society in 1838,* the facts in regard to the 

 Saxons being furnished to me by another member of the 

 committee, Henry D. Grove, the leading German importer 

 and breeder of that variety of sheep in our country. That 

 history having been republished in the "American Shepherd," 

 in "Sheep Husbandry in the South," and in various other 

 publications, it is scarcely necessaiy to take up space here 

 with its curious particulars concerning a variety now pretty 

 generally discarded in our country. Suffice it to say, that 

 the most enormous frauds were practiced; grade sheep were 

 mixed with nearly every importation; and these miserable 

 animals brought along with them scab and hoof-rot, those dire 

 scourges of the ovine race. 



The great discrimination made in favor of fine-wool by 

 the tariff of 1828, excited a mania for its production, and 

 every producer strove to obtain the finest, almost regardless 

 of every other consideration. Size, weight of fleece, and 

 constitution were totally overlooked. Yet the grower was 

 feeding on hope. Fine-wool did not rise to a high price until 

 after the middle of 1830, and neither then nor at any subse- 

 quent period did the average price of Saxon exceed that of 

 Spanish wool by more than ten cents a pounds while at least 

 a third more of the latter could be obtained from the same 

 number of sheep,f or the same amount of feed. When we 

 consider this fact, and consider the superiority of the Spanish 

 sheep in every other particular except fineness of wool, we 

 cannot suflBciently wonder that from 1824 to 1840 the SaKons 

 should have received universal preference, have sold for vastly 

 higher prices, and that those who owned Spanish sheep, 

 should have in almost every instance made haste to cross them 

 with their small and comparatively worthless competitors. 



In about 1840, however, a reaction commenced, and the 

 tariff of 1846, (which established an even ad valorem duty of 



* Published in Albany Cultivator, March, 1838, and partially in the New York 

 State Agricultural Society's Transactions, 1841, 



tMr. Grove's flock of picked breeding sheep — not excelled probably in the 

 United States among pure bloods, for weight of fleece — yielded an average of 2 lbs. 

 11 oz. per head of washed wool in 1840, and he published this product as a proof of 

 the superior value of his favorite variety. See his letter to me, Transactions New 

 York State Agricultural Society, 1841, p. 333. 



