168 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 
one sheep to every inhabitant, and less than fifty-six 
sheep for every square mile; and it further appears 
that our sheep have steadily decreased for twenty 
years, and. are still continuing to decrease. 
But this temporary decay of a great branch of hus- 
bandry admits, I think, of reasonable explanation. 
The history of the introduction of Saxon sheep has 
been given, their spread over the State, and almost 
total absorption of the Spanish sheep between 1824 
and 1835, their ceasing to be remunerative after 1837, 
and their banishment from our farms in 1846. The 
great flocks of this State kept for wool-growing pur- 
poses anterior to18£0, were mostly of this blood; and 
when they were abandoned no other wool-growing 
sheep proper was left to supply their places. For the 
few improved American Merinos left in the country 
in the hands of breeders, comparatively large prices 
were asked. It was not strange that our farmers, 
recollecting the overthrow of the Spanish Merinos in 
1815, smarting under their recent losses with the 
Saxon, and discouraged by legislation, which was 
prostrating a large branch of the woolen manufactures 
of our country, were wholly disinclined to venture on 
any new and costly experiments in fine-wooled sheep. 
In fact, that prejudice which should have been direct- 
ed against visionary investments, injudicious manage- 
ment, and vacillating legislation in respect to sheep, 
became directed against these valuable animals them- 
selves.* 
* The destruction caused among sheep by dogs, has also essentially 
contributed to the prostration of sheep husbandry. It not only has 
inflicted serious, and, in the aggregate, enormous losses on our people, 
but it has of late years, as population and eurs have increased, dnven 
