PEDIGREES OF MR. RANDALL’S SHEEP. 
367 
soil will supply some of the constituents that are 
wanting in the other. Many of our fields have 
had, as was previously stated to you in my letter 
on Sea-island cotton, great quantities of oyster- 
shells deposited by the extinct Indian tribes of 
the seacoast, and under these shelly lands will 
generally be found a gypsius sand still more val¬ 
uable for mixture with the surface soil. 
Thomas Spalding. 
Sapelo Island , Geo., September 24, 1844. 
In answer to our call in the October No. of the Ag¬ 
riculturist, page 300, upon Messrs. Jewett and Randall 
for the pedigrees of Pedro, Fortune, &c., Mr. R. has 
given below, what we suppose is all that he thinks he 
has any concern in; but as the pedigrees of Pedro and 
the “ Simon Pure flock of 400 Paulars” still remain 
untouched, we shall be obliged to Mr. Jewett to answer 
so far as regards these animals. We presume he has 
long had their pedigrees in hand, and as a certain por¬ 
tion of the public is very anxious to see them, we shall 
expect to be furnished with the matter in time for our 
next number. 
PEDIGREES OF MR. RANDALL’S SHEEP. 
In your paper of October, you ask me and S. W. 
Jewett, Esq., of Vermont, to give you “the pedigree 
and breed of Mr. Jewett’s rams Pedro and Fortune 
2d, you ask me to inform you where the “ pure Paulars 
in the U. S. in the hands of various individuals are to 
be found, of which I speak at page 25 of the Cultivator 
for 1844.” 
With your permission, I will first answer your second 
question. By turning to the communication of mine in 
the Cultivator, alluded to by you, you will perceive that 
I do not assert there are any Paulars in the United 
States, on my own authority or knowledge; 2d, that the 
assertion, let it be on whose authority it will, is but 
conditional and hypothetical. It amounts simply to the 
expression of an opinion, based on the supposed credi¬ 
bility of certain testimony, and, to equally enable 
others to judge of its validity, the nature and kind of 
that testimony is fully set forth in connexion with such 
expression. That testimony was “the assertions of 
honorable and veracious men.” 
I make this explanation, not because I have any 
doubts as to the fact involved, or my ability to prove 
that fact, but because having repeatedly expressed my 
disregard publicly and privately, for what I consider 
the fictitious- importance attached to the “ Paular” 
name, and having so repeatedly laughed at both the 
pros and the cons in what may be styled the “Paular 
War,” I have no ambition now to be suddenly elevated 
to the rank of a leader or champion, in either of the 
belligerent forces; in other words, I would not consti¬ 
tute myself, or be constituted by others, one of the 
principal parties to a dispute which I regard as of little 
importance. 
With this disclaimer, I have no objection to give a 
portion of the proofs (enough to establish the fact, in 
my judgment) on which I based my opinion. As those 
proofs will, incidentally, form a portion of my answer 
to your first inquiry, I will now pass to the considera¬ 
tion of that inquiry. 
Let me premise, for a proper understanding of the 
subject by the reader, that since your first inquiry was 
made, you have, in compliance with my wishes, so 
varied it, that its scope, instead of being limited to two 
sheep, neither of which is owned by me, and one of 
which I never saw, now embraces the pedigrees of my 
flock of Merinos. 
Not to unreasonably exceed the limits of this com¬ 
munication, I shall at this time call attention but to a 
single strain of blood in my flock. I have others, the 
purity of which I consider equally susceptible of proof, 
and which I know to be accompanied with equal value, 
in the individual, but I make choice of the one which, 
with one exception, includes the sheep on which I drew 
the first premium on Merino rams, and first and second 
premium on Merino ewes at the late Fair of the State 
Agricultural Society at Poughkeepsie, because these 
animals having been so publicly exhibited, their pedi¬ 
grees may be a matter of more interest to many, than 
those of sheep never seen by them. Indeed, I should 
be exceedingly reluctant to take up the room in the 
columns of a public periodical, with any of my pedi¬ 
grees, were it not that I conceive that they may borrow 
some interest, in the public mind, from the light which 
they throw on an important, and among those who have 
not particularly investigated the subject, a mooted 
question, viz.* whether there are or are not now in the 
United States, pure-blooded descendants of the early 
Merino importations, beside those of Consul Jarvis, 
and of some few who hold from him. 
Andrew Cock, of Flushing, Long Island, purchased 
imported Merino Sheep of Richard Crowninshield, and 
various other importers. In 1823, he sold his flock to 
Hon. Charles Rich, whom many will recollect as a for¬ 
mer Member of Congress, from Vermont, and Leonard 
Bedel], both of Shoreham of that State. John T. and 
Charles Rich, sons of Charles Rich, senior, inherited 
their father’s flock. John T. has kept his portion of it 
pure to the present day. C harles kept his pure for a 
period, but whether he has to the present day, or whe¬ 
ther he retains them at all, I am not informed. Bedell 
kept his flock pure to the time of his death, at and 
shortly previous to which time, portions of it fell into 
the hands of various breeders, several of whom have 
preserved it pure to the present time. John T. Rich, 
S. W. Jewett, Gen. Jasper Barnum, M. C. W. Wright, 
and some other individuals, own descendants of the 
Cock flock, which have been preserved pure and un¬ 
mixed, a portion of them from any other blood —a por¬ 
tion of them from any other blood excepting that of 
Consul Jarvis’s importation, by the use of rams regu¬ 
larly attested by Consul Jarvis to be pure descendants 
of his imported Spanish sheep. The ewes of mine 
which received the State Society’s first and second pre¬ 
miums at Poughkeepsie, were got by “Fortune,” dams 
pure bred ewes of the Rich or Cock stock, owned by 
S. W. Jewett. 
The following statement by the Hon. Effingham 
Lawrence, of Long Island, (who acted as Chairman of 
the fine wooled sheep committee at the 2d State Fair at 
Albany—who has owned, bred, and sold more pure bred 
Merinos, and possesses a greater knowledge of the 
early importation of them, than almost any other indi¬ 
vidual in the United States—) shows the kind of sheep 
possessed by Andrew Cock, his skill as a breeder, and 
his integrity as a man. 
Judge Lawrence's Statement .—Yours is duly received, in which 
you refer to a conversation we had, on the subject of Merino sheep, 
and particularly of the quality and purity of the flock of Andrew 
Cock, who was my near neighbor. We were intimate, and com¬ 
menced laying the foundations of our Merino flocks about the same 
time. I was present when he purchased most of his sheep, which 
was in 1811. He first purchased two ewes at $1,100 per head. 
They were very fine, and of the Escurial flock imported by Rich¬ 
ard Crowninshield. 
His next purchase was 30 of the Paular breed at from $50 to 
$100 per head. He continued to purchase of the different impcr- 
