44 LBICESTBES INTEODUCED. 



United States of improved Englisli Sheep, if not of improved 

 sheep of any kind, to that great man, first in the arts of peace 

 as well as war, George Washington. Livingston, writing 

 in 1809, says of the "Arlington Long-Wooled Sheep" that 

 they were " derived from the stock" of General Washington 

 — being bred by his step-son, Mr. Custis, from a Persian 

 ram and Bakewell ewes. Gen. Washington died near the 

 close of 1799.* 



A Mr. Lax, who resided on Long Island, "smuggled" 

 some Leicesters into the United States not far from 1810; 

 and fl-om these Christopher Dunn, of Albany, New York, 

 obtained the origin of his long celebrated flock.f During the 

 war of 1812 with England, some choice Leicesters, on their 

 way to Canada, were captured by one of our privateers, and 

 sold at auction in New York, and thus became scattered 

 throughout the country. Some sheep of this family were also 

 _ear^ introduced by Captain Beanes, of New Jersey.J 



~The elaborate descriptions of the Leicesters, by Youatt 

 and Spooner, have been made so familiar to American readers, 

 that I shall use that of Mr. John Wilson, Professor of Agri- 

 culture in the University of Edinburgh, in a paper " On the 

 Various Breeds of Sheep in Great Britain," published in the 

 Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, in 

 1856: 



* Livingaton (see his Esse^ on Sheep, p. B8,^ does not expressly say that Gen. 

 Washington introduced the " Bakewells." but this is to be inferred iVom his state- 

 ment that the Arlington Sheep " were derived from his stock," Tiitliout making an 

 exception of the Bakewells. Mr. Livingston speaks of the Arlington's as an existing 

 family, when he "wrote. I have not Mr. Custis's pamphlet before me fi*om which he 

 appears to have derived his facts, 



t He commenced crossing it vrith a Cotswold ram in 1832, and from that period it 

 hccame-^a grade flock between the two families. But it was an excellent one. His 

 wethers weighed 35 lbs. per quarter and carried 8 lbs. of wool per head. His first 

 Cotswold ram weiglied alive 250 lbs., and yielded at one shearing 15X lbs. of wool 14 

 inches long. In 1835 he sold ewes from $12 to $15 a head, and rams from $30 to $50 a 

 liead. Several eminent flocks in the vicinity, like those of Mr. Duane and Mr. North, 

 in Schenectady, &c., &c., originated from these. 1 have obtained most of my facts 

 about Mr. Dunn's sheep from a communication signed B. in the Albany Cultivator, 

 March, 1885. It was undoubtedly written by Caleb N. Bement— entirely reliable 

 authority ; but whoever wrote the article. Judge Buell, then editor of the Cultivator, 

 who was perfectly conversant with Mr. Dunn and his flock, would not have published 

 any erroneous statements in regard to either; and had any errors crept into" his 

 columns by oversight, he would have promptly corrected them. 



Mr. William H. Sotham, in a communication to the Cultivator in 1840, states the 

 following facts of six wethers bred and fed by Mr. Dunn that year. The heaviest 

 weighed 210 lbs., and the fat on the ribs measured byi inches. The thickness of fat on 

 the smallest was 4K inches. They were sold to Mr. Kirkpatrick for $22 a head, and 

 the meat sold rapidly in the market for 12>^ cents a pound. The ^eeccs averaged 

 about 10 lbs. each in weight. 



X Capt. Beanes also introduced Teeswaters and South Downs, but they were not 

 long kept distinct from the surrounding varieties and families. It has been said that 

 some Teeswaters were included among the sbocp captured, as above stated, by a priva- 

 teer in 1812. 



