136 
SHEEP HUSBANDRY—NO. V. 
SHEEP HUSBANDRY—NO. 5. 
Showing how the Saxon sheep were introduced into 
the United States; by which means the invaluable 
old Merino flocks (with which the country had 
been providentially supplied), were materially in¬ 
jured , and ultimately ruined and destroyed; a 
misfortune of incalculable extent and importance , 
whereby the country sustained immense loss and 
damage. 
Other avocations and duties, have caused a 
much longer interval of time than I intended 
should' elapse, between my last communication 
and the present. In the meantime, however, I 
have had the gratification of seeing your pages 
constantly and fully occupied with agreeable and 
highly instructive matter, probably more interest¬ 
ing to many of your readers, than anything I 
should have discoursed, so that I have felt assured 
of not being much missed from among your con¬ 
tributors, for a few months past. 
In my last paper, published in your September 
number, I gave some account of the original intro¬ 
duction into this country, from France and Spain, 
of that invaluable breed of animals, the merino 
sheep; undoubtedly the most valuable and profit¬ 
able race of sheep for wooZ-growing purposes 
which this country, or the world, has ever seen. 
After having there showed how and when we ob¬ 
tained them, I promised to show in my next when 
and how they were lost; and also afterward,'to 
point nut hoiv they may be certainly, speedily, and 
cheaply restored to the country, in all their former 
excellence. 
That the original blood, has been lost, in a great 
degree, and to a universal extent, throughout the 
whole United States, is a fact, which I presume 
is, unfortunately, too true and too universally felt 
and admitted, to require argument, or allow of 
doubt. After we became (as I have shown) perfect¬ 
ly established, between the years 1802 and 1812, 
in possession of the choicest and best sort of Meri¬ 
no sheep, they had hardly been allowed time 
.enough to become well acclimated, and adapted 
to their new treatment and habits in this country, 
(and though greatly increased and widely-spread, 
were by no means universally introduced,) when, 
about twenty years after the first importations of 
Merinos were made by Chancellor Livingston, and 
Col. Humphreys, it was whispered among us, that 
there existed in Germany a choicer kind of fine 
woolled sheep than the Merino—to wit, the sort 
denominated Electoral Saxon. 
Let me now give a little sketch of the introduc¬ 
tion of Saxm sheep. The manufacturers of fine 
cloths in this country, felt a deep interest in hav¬ 
ing the Saxony sheep introduced into the United 
States, so that they might be the better enabled to 
compete successfully, with the fine and soft cloths 
of the English and other foreign manufacturers, 
who were using to a great extent the exquisitely 
fine, soft, and silky Saxon wool, of German growth. 
Under this manufacturing interest and influence, 
a small importation of Saxon sheep was made into 
the United States, in the year 1823. In that year 
Mr. Samuel Henshaw of Boston, imported two 
Saxon rams, one of which was sold to Mr. James 
Shepherd, who was at that time an extensive man¬ 
ufacturer of fine woollen cloths, at or near North¬ 
ampton, Mass. It is understood that Mr. Shep¬ 
herd was among the most active and influential, in 
procuring the earliest importations of Saxon sheep, 
and in encouraging and promoting the introduction 
and spread of that blood as far and widely as pos¬ 
sible, throughout the United States. In the sum¬ 
mer of the same year (1823,) and simultaneous 
with Mr. Henshaw’s importation above-named, 
two rams were also imported from Saxony, by (or 
for) Mr. William J. Miller, a wool grower, who 
resided near the city of Philadelphia. I have no¬ 
knowledge of any earlier importations of Saxon 
sheep, than those above-mentioned, and presume 
these were the first, or among the first, brought 
out. In the following year, (1824,) Messrs. George 
and Thomas Searle, merchants of Boston, Mass., 
imported a small vessel load of Saxon sheep; the 
number of sheep was somewhat less than a hun¬ 
dred ; perhaps about eighty, in all. A portion of 
this importation were pretty good sheep of the 
kind, and were probably pure bred, or of good 
blood, which was more than could have been said 
for all of them. However, they alh, incl tiding good, 
bad, and indifferent, sold well, and without much 
distinction as to blood, or as to real value and 
goodness. 
The next year, (1825,) the Messrs. Searle, 
above-named, went largely into the business of 
importation, as did also .some others, both in this 
country and in Germany. For a year or two, or 
perhaps I might say tivo or three years, the spec¬ 
ulation in Saxon sheep raged almost as fiercely in 
our eastern cities and states as it had previously 
done in Merinos, some dozen or twenty years be¬ 
fore. During the years 1825, ’6, and ’7, many 
vessel loads, consisting of large numbers of Saxon 
sheep, were imported into the United States, and 
landed at various ports, from Portsmouth, N. H., 
to Philadelphia, but greatly the largest number 
were landed at Boston and New York. Very few 
Saxon sheep were imported later than the yeai 
1827, saving a small number brought out by Ger¬ 
man emigrants. Some of the early importations 
paid well, and were highly profitable to the irm 
porters; while others, later made, resulted in s. 
heavy loss on the cost of importation. It was un¬ 
derstood that the Messrs. Searle made a good deal 
of money, but on the whole, I doubt whether much 
money was made by the importers. 
The speculation, or fever , in Saxon sheep, I 
think was at its height in 1825 and ’26. Of a 
cargo sold in 1825 by public auction at Brighton, 
near Boston, some of the sheep brought as high as 
$400 to $450 each. From first to last, there were 
a good many grade or part-blood sheep brought 
out with the rest, and among them many miser¬ 
ably bad ones; poor, delicate, good-for-nothing 
animals, without constitution, and which could 
be of no possible value or use to anybody, but only 
serve to bring discredit on the name and race of 
Saxon sheep. Such, however, sold with the rest, 
and for a time brought good prices, little being 
then looked to, or thought of, by the excited 
American purchasers, beyond extreme fineness of 
fleece. The impure or part-\Aoo& sheep, sold as 
