LONG-WOOL SHEEP. 
183 
LONG-WOOL SHEEP. 
My attention has been drawn to an article in 
your journal, Vol. IT., page 209, entitled “ The 
Best Sheep Country,” in which the writer asks the 
following questions:— 
1. Will the quality of wool obtained from a 
Cotswold or New Leicester sheep compensate for 
its reduced price ? 
2. What would be the cost of importing from 
England, via. New Orleans, into this territory, 
South Down, Cotswold, or New Leicester sheep, 
and what is the price of such sheep in England ? 
Having had experience of some 20 years in 
breeding the different kinds of long-woolled Eng¬ 
lish mutton-sheep, I purpose to answer the above 
questions as briefly as possible. As facts are ever 
to be preferred to supposition, I can not more sat¬ 
isfactorily answer said questions, than by reciting 
such facts as have occurred to me in my own ex¬ 
perience as a breeder, which may apply to the 
case in hand, and by which the reader may ascer¬ 
tain the comparative value of the mutton, with 
the smaller and finer-woolled sheep. 
In the commencement of my sheep-growing, 
I turned most of my lambs (which were a cross 
from full-blood, long-woolled bucks, on the com¬ 
mon sheep of our country) to the butcher, at the 
age of from 3 to 5 months old, at prices varying 
from $2,50 to $3,50 per head. The ewes from 
which I bred were well-selected, and cost from 
$2,00 to $2,50 per head, and I almost invariably 
fatted them the same year, and replaced them by 
a new flock. In this way I was enabled to make 
a fair profit on the ewes, the lambs, and the wool. 
The lambs I replaced with an equal number of 
wethers, which I stall-fed the following winter. 
These last cost me per head about what my lambs 
brought, and generally paid 50 per cent, on the 
first cost, and sometimes more. This method I 
pursued until about 10 years since, when I found 
that the general introduction of the Saxon sheep, 
with their crosses on the Merino and native breeds, 
had so depreciated the size and constitution of our 
sheep, that it became quite impossible (as it now 
is) to obtain from this stock, ewes fit to breed mar¬ 
ket lambs and wethers, of the quality requisite 
to be fed for the shambles. Such being the case, 
a new system of sheep-husbandry was to be adopt¬ 
ed, and I soon resolved upon a course which I have 
since pursued, and that was to raise wethers for 
the market, and to keep a good and well-assorted 
flock from which to supply those who wished to 
purchase. To do this I knew required a large 
outlay both of money and trouble, to say nothing 
of the risk ever attending a new enterprise. 
And here, Mr. Editor, allow me to suggest, that I 
think that our American farmers, too generally, 
are unwilling to incur much expense for the ad¬ 
vancement of that art which they have adopted as 
their study through life. They are all willing to 
have good stock on their farms, but not at the ex¬ 
pense of any extra outlay. They are willing to 
profit by a neighbor’s enterprise, and to lend their 
encouragement just so far as it does not cost any¬ 
thing. This is all wrong. There should be the 
same community of interest existing among, and 
the same mutual encouragement extended from 
the farmers to one another, as between the mer¬ 
chants and manufacturers, who are proverbial for 
contributing to the advancement of their own pe¬ 
culiar callings. 
But to return. At the time spoken of, the Bake- 
well sheep were most in vogue, and for a buck of 
that breed I had paid as high as $60. This blood 
did not suit me ; the constitution of these sheep not 
being sufficiently strong for our cold winters. I 
therefore resolved to make an importation on my 
own account, which I did in the year 1835, con¬ 
sisting of two pairs of sheep, one Cotswold and the 
other Lincolnshire. Their cost in England was 
$25 per head, and about the same was paid for cost 
of transportation to New York. The first lot of 
wethers produced from these bucks, I sold the 
winter of 1839 in New York market for a little 
over $31 per head, and the next year, in a falling 
market, I sold a second lot for $20 per head. In 
the year 1836, I purchased in New York one buck 
and sixteen ewes, being, with the exception of 
about three pairs of sheep, the whole of an impor¬ 
tation, made bv an English gentleman, direct from 
the county of Lincolnshire, England. What they 
cost in England I know not,'but the pairs that 
were sold out of the importation brought from 
$300 to $400 per pair, and I gave over $800 for 
the 17 sheep, which I consider one of the best pur¬ 
chases I ever made. 
In the year 1840, at the Fair in New York, I 
purchased a buck and ewe, (Lincolnshire,) just im¬ 
ported, for $200, and at the present moment, I 
have a friend who has engaged to bring me the 
best pair of sheep ever imported into the United 
Stales. I hope he may do so. Thus it will be 
perceived that I have made large outlays in order 
to improve my flock, and I take just pride in say¬ 
ing, that thus far I have been amply repaid for my 
pains. I raise sheep both for the farmer and for 
the butcher. 
During the last two or three years, the agricul¬ 
tural interest has been greatly depressed, yet I 
have realized from my wethers, from $8 to $10 
per head. I have sold within the last few years a 
large number of both bucks and ewes for breeding, 
at prices varying from $25 to $50 per head for the 
former, and from $10 to $25 per head for the lat¬ 
ter ; and in some instances for a very fine speci¬ 
men, I have obtained $200 per pair. During the 
twelve months just passed, blood stock has 
brought but a meagre price, and buyers have been 
scarce at that. Now, however, the prospect is 
better, and inquiries are made from various quar¬ 
ters, for fine sheep particularly. There are plenty 
of good sheep and fine cattle bred in our own 
country, equal if not superior to anything that can 
be imported, and which can be furnished to the 
purchaser at rates much less than it will cost to 
bring them from England—and it is but demand¬ 
ing justice to ask, that our own breeders and pro¬ 
ducers should be encouraged, in preference to 
those of foreign countries, when the article fur¬ 
nished is equally good in the one case as in the 
other. Thus far I have spoken more particularly 
of the mutton-qualities of the long-woolled sheep. 
I will now refer more particularly to the wool it¬ 
self. 
