40 Sheep-Farming 



edge of the influence of these and their association 

 with altitude, furnishes a guide to the characteristics 

 and merits of the breeds much more reKable than that 

 from any other source, excepting only actual ex- 

 perience with the breed representatives. 



Establishment of American sheep-breeding. — The 

 careful breeding of sheep in America dates from the 

 beginning of the nineteenth century. The develop- 

 ment of American industries that followed the sever- 

 ing of ties with England produced a new demand for 

 wool. 



In some instances, the legislatures of the original 

 states set apart moneys to be given as bonuses to 

 growers of wool and manufacturers of woolen fab- 

 rics. Our political representatives abroad interested 

 themselves in making it possible for American farmers 

 to secure the blood of the fine-wool-producing sheep 

 of Spain and thus establish the industry in this 

 country. General David Humphries of Connecti- 

 cut, our minister at the Court of Spain, sent twenty- 

 one rams and seventy ewes to his home state in 1802. 

 In 1801, Mr. Adams moved to Ohio and founded the 

 wool-growing industry in that state that to-day 

 leads the farm states in wool-production and is looked 

 to the world over for superior breeding stock. In 

 the same year, Robert Livingston, Minister to France, 

 sent to New York State a number of Merinos from 

 the Rambouillet flock. In 1809-1810, William Jarvis 

 of Vermont, United States Consul at Lisbon, Portu- 



