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SHEEP AND WOOL IN THE -UNITED State 
Under the title of “Sheep and Wool: a Review of the 
Progress of the America Sheep Husbandry,” the United 
States Department of Agriculture have issued an exhaus- 
tive report by Mr. J. R. Dodge upon the general development 
and present position of the sheep breeding and woollen 
industry of that country. From this report the following 
particulars are taken :— 
Sheep were introduced by the earliest settlers in America, 
and, the women of the household being generally weavers 
and spinners, the emigrants brought looms and _ spin- 
ning wheels with them. The first sheep thus came 
from England or Holland, and were of coarse-wool breeds. 
It is said that they were first landed in Virginia in 1609. 
For some time settlement was slow and increase of sheep 
moderate, but by 1650 there were reported to be some 3,000 
in both Virginia and Massachusetts. All the colonies 
encouraged wool production and manufacture to a greater or 
less extent, and progress was general in the eighteenth 
century. When friction arose with the mother country, and 
during the Revolution, patriotism led the inhabitants to 
turn their attention more and more to home-spun clothes, so 
that by 1810, under the influence of the merino excitement 
and a forecast of war, the number of sheep was estimated to 
be greater than the population. 
During the first half of the present century the production 
of wool appears to have been the main object of breeders’ 
efforts. Between 1800 and 1816 many Spanish merinos 
were imported into the United States, the Infantado breed 
being especially popular, and this is said to be the progenitor 
of most Americ2n flocks. Saxon merinos were largely 
imported between 1824 and 1848. [arly in the sixties the 
dawn of the worsted era was observed. There was a great 
scarcity of English combing wool, and manufacturers 
