264 
PAUL A R MERINO SHEEP. 
PAULAR MERINO SHEEP. 
A writer in the American Agriculturalist, over 
the signature of Examiner, has at intervals, for 
several months, published a series of violent 
attacks, on not only the sheep, but the motives, 
veracity, and character of various breeders of Me¬ 
rino sheep in our country. Indeed, I know of but 
one breeder of this variety, in relation to whose 
sheep much has been said or written of late, who 
has escaped these assaults. 
I am charged by this writer with being “ inter¬ 
ested ” in the statements which I have submitted 
to the public in relation to the sheep of Mr. S. W. 
Jewett, of Vermont; and I am particularly charged 
with publishing in the January No. of the Culti¬ 
vator “ an elaborate defence and puff of these 
sheep—a disguised ram advertisement, headed, as 
usual, with a decoy or catch-picture.” I confess I 
deem it a degrading necessity to feel myself driven 
to answer the personal assaults of an anonymous 
writer; and nothing but the tacit or partial sanc¬ 
tion (a) of these assaults on the part of the editor of 
a respectable agricultural journal, which the pub¬ 
lic, or some portion of it, may be disposed to infer 
from his continued publication of them, has forced 
me to adopt an alternative so humiliating. 
I do not propose to bandy criminations or re¬ 
criminations with an anonymous writer. I shall 
content myself, mainly, with explaining those facts 
and circumstances out of which this writer has 
formed materials for his assertions against me. 
The first year I acted as corresponding secretary 
of the New York State Agricultural Society, I 
invited Mr. Jewett, in common with various other 
breeders of sheep of every variety, to express his 
views and the results of his experience in relation 
to sheep-breeding, for our Volume of Transactions. 
I had never met Mr. J., but extended this invita¬ 
tion on the recommendation of those whom I sup¬ 
posed best qualified to judge, as well as that com¬ 
mon fame, which assigned him a high, if not the 
first place, as a breeder of Merinos, in the United 
States. In his part of the correspondence which 
ensued between us, there was certainly nothing to 
change the favorable impressions which I had im¬ 
bibed towards him. I subsequently met him. His 
appearance was that of a gentleman. He was a 
candidate for a high and responsible office in the 
State in which he resided. On him, so far as my 
knowledge had extended, the breath of suspicion 
had never blown. 
I had come to the conclusion to breed Merinos. 
After diligent inquiry in relation to the weight and 
quality of fleeces of the most celebrated flocks in 
our country, I came to the undoubting conclusion, 
that for a union of these properties, the sheep of 
Mr. Jewett excelled those of any other breeder. 
Their pedigrees as pure bred Merinos were traced 
by him, to my full satisfaction, from imported 
flocks. Further than this I went not and cared not.* 
* Examiner, after insinuating that Mr. J’s sheep are 
tl mongrels,” u crossed with English sheep, ” &c., would 
now escape by narrowing down the issue to the single friv¬ 
olous point whether they are or are not a Paular” Merinos ! 
As I stated in my article in the January Cultivator, I con¬ 
sider this a question of no consequence, and have paid no 
attention to it in the investigation of their pedigrees. I 
Anxious to improve my flock with these sheep, I 
ordered a small number, and gave a carte blanche 
for the price. I received but two, and actually 
owned just two , and no more, (and had not, at that 
time, the most remote expectation of owning 
more,) when Examiner taunted me with being 
an “ interested puffer” of Mr. J’s sheep—“ issuing 
disguised ram advertisements,” &c.! I will fur¬ 
ther say, if the assertion can be considered neces¬ 
sary, that I have not •now, and never have had, 
any interest or connection with Mr. J., directly or 
indirectly, in the disposal of his sheep. 
A word in relation to my communication in the 
January number of the Cultivator, stigmatized as 
a “ disguised ram advertisement.” It was dis¬ 
tinctly stated in the communication itself, that it 
was drawn forth by the direct request of the editor 
of the Cultivator, to me directed, asking me to 
write what I knew of Paulars in general—For¬ 
tune’s (Mr. Jewett’s buck) character, pretensions, 
and progeny in particular.” I might have added, 
in relation to the “ decoy picture,” that the editor 
of the Cultivator further stated to me, that he had 
a portrait of “Fortune” which would appear at 
the head of my communication. I had no agency 
in procuring that picture, and do not know that 
any other person had, beside the editor of the 
Cultivator. On two other occasions, be it known 
unto Examiner, have I published statements in 
relation to Mr. J’s sheep, or in relation to my sheep 
purchased of Mr. J. The first which appeared 
previously to the article in the Cultivator, was to 
correct an erroneous statement made in relation 
to the weight of their fleeces by the editor of the 
Genesee Farmer; the second appeared in a de¬ 
scription of the Cortland county fair, where these 
sheep were competitors, which description was 
prepared at the request of the editor of the Cen¬ 
tral New York Farmer, and was published by him. 
I am desirous that Examiner, and all others in¬ 
terested shall know the full length and breadth of 
my “ advertising” propensities and practices. 
If commendatory notices of varieties, breeds, or 
animals possessed by the writer, be proof that the 
writer is “ interested”—is “ issuing disguised ad¬ 
vertisements,” all I have to say is, that many dis¬ 
tinguished gentlemen throughout the country have 
for years thus “grievously offended,” and none 
more so than A. B. Allen. ( b ) They have “ adver¬ 
tised” where thousands of dollars were involved, 
instead of the paltry price of two sheep and their 
produce! To this day, Mr. Editor, I, and doubt¬ 
less thousands of others, entertain glowing and 
gratified recollections of your graphic descriptions 
of Bellfounder horses; Durham and Devon cattle, 
and their crosses; Tuscarora, Berkshire, and China 
hogs, &c., &c., &c.; and Examiner has but to turn 
back the pages of the Cultivator to the notable era, 
if I recollect aright, of 1836, (c) to find its pages 
almost bristling into life with the “counterfeit 
presentment” of pigs of as many hues as the 
“ pretty little horses” in the nursery song— 
spoke of Fortune as a c{ Paular,” because his owner so 
calls him, and because he was so called by the editor of 
the Cultivator in his request for a description of him, 
quoted subsequently in the above communication. 
