44 LBICESTEES INTEODirCBD. 



United States of improved English Sheep, if not of improved 

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

 as well as war, Gboegb Washingtok. Livingston, writing 

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

 they were " derived from the stock" of General Washington 

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

 ram and Bakewell ewes. Gen. WasMngton 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 from these Christopher Dunn, of Albany, New York, 

 obtained the origin of his long celebrated flock.f Dm'ing the 

 war of 1812 witji 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 

 early 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 oJ^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: 



* Livingston (see Us Essay on Sbeep, p. B8,) does not expressly say tliat Gen. 

 Washington introduced the " Baltewells,'' hut this is to be inferred from his state- 

 ment that the Arlington Sheep " were derived from his stock," without 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 from which he 

 appears to have derived his facts. 



t He commenced crossing it with a Cotswold ram in 1832, and ftom that period it 

 became 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 weighed alive 360 lbs., and yielded at one shearing 15K lbs. of wool 14 

 inches long. In 1835 he sold ewes from $12 to $15 a head, and rams from $30 to $60 a 

 head. Several eminent flocks in the vicinity, like those of Mr. Doane and Mr. North, 

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

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

 March, 1835. It was undoubtedly written by Caleb N. Bcment — 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 5)^ inches. The thickness of fat on 

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

 the meat sold rapidly in the market ror 12K cents a pound. The fleeces averaged 

 about 10 lbs. each in weight. 



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

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

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

 teer in 1812. 



