38 FINE WOOL SUEEP HUSBANDRY. 
some value to those who term themselves “ breeders,” 
to know that those who had the good sense or good 
luck thus to preserve them in their purity were far- 
mers of little information, and wholly obscure until 
their connection with these sheep raised them to 
notoriety. 
Mr. —_—— ———,* of Philadelphia, had, as early 
as 1796~97, sent on order to Spain for a Merino ram. 
The animal reached the Capes of Delaware safely, 
but was there washed overboard in a storm. He sent 
an order for a pair in 1801, instead of which two 
pairs of black ones reached him in 1803! This he 
supposed done to “ increase the profit of the commis- 
sion,” for black Merinos “ cost but little, being held in 
no estimation in Spain.” This gentleman bred from 
these assiduously for a few years, but nobody would 
buy them, and they had to be abandoned. 
Mr. Muller imported a pair of Merinos from the 
flock of the Prince of Hesse Cassel in 1807, and they, 
and their descendants, were kept about Philadelphia, 
and in New Jersey and Delaware. James Caldwell, 
Esq., of Philadelphia, interbred, with success, between 
these and sheep from Colonel Humphreys’ flock. 
But by far the most extensive and important impor- 
tations of Spanish Merinos into the United States were 
* See second note back, and the text to which it is appended. I 
find this account of his importation of black sheep in the fragmentary 
Essay mentioned in such text. The Essay will be found in a volume 
of the State Agricultural Library, made up of miscellaneous papers and 
extracts. It appears to have been published in 1808 or 1809. The 
author says the price of his sheep, in Spain, was $60, freight $20 
The quantity of wool yielded by the two rams was 4% and 4} lbs.; 
by the ewes, 35 and 3} Ibs. This was washed wool, I suppose. 
