Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-04-20
SHEEP OF BLUEST BLOOD.
HERlNOS WITH LONG PEDlCREES IN
THE HILLS OF VERMONT.


Earrings and Have Commanded About
$1,000 Apiece - Their Purity of Blood
Guarded SacreIly - Came From Spain.
''The bluest- blooded, most aristo-
cratic of all domestic animals in the
United States is the merino Sheep"
said Aaron Spencer, New England
stock breeder, ''and nowhere else in
the world, not even among the hills of
Spain--the original home of the meri-
no-is this animal found in such per-
fection and purity of breeding as
among the Greer Mountains of Yer
mont There are merinos in that re-
gion, and particularly in Addison
county, whose pedigree is traced back
without break in the record or 4
blot in the blood for more than
century, directly to the ancestral pas
lures in Spain.
10 look at merino sheep, unless
you know all the points of one, you
would scarcely think it was worth
driving to pasture. Greasy, dirty
and uncouth, its fleece, blackened by
an oozy, gummy substance which, to
put it mild, is by no means fragrant,
hanging to its body in rhinoceros- like
folds and wrinkles, the eyes barely
visible, and nothing but the nose
showing from the greasy, sticky, ill
smelling mass, the royal blooded mer-
lno Is not sight to cause much en-
thuslasm in a spectator who is looking
for outward beauty. But the blacker
and gummier and rhinoceros-l like its
fleece the better it is Breeders think
so much of that dirty gum on their
merinos that they carefully shelter
them from showers, and even heavy
dews, to prevent a particle of it from
being dissipated Members of this
aristocratic family of sheep of theVer-
mont breed have taken on this unpre-
possessing and uncouth appearance
and rank smell to such a degree that
they have easily commanded $4,000
apiece from eager breeders. 1 knew
an Addison county flock of merinos,
thirty in number, to be sold Just as
they stood in the pasture for $40, 900
cash.
''For centuries the government of
Spain prohibited, under heavy penal
ties, the expectation of merino sheep,
knowing we'll the great value of that
product of its mountain slopes, and
being resolved not to share it with
any other country. In 1902, Colonel
David Humphrey of Connecticut was
United States minister to Spain. aud
he made himself so popu.ar at the
court of Madrid that when he retired
from Office in chat year his request
to be permitted to fetch with him to
America a number of merinos of known
superiority of blood was granted by
the Spanish government. Those sheep
were placed on the Humphrey farm,
near Derby, and from that original
stock the present royal breed of Ver-
mont merinos sprang.
''But there is an aristocracy even
among -blooded merinos, AMI the
family known as the Atwoods may be
said to be the Mayhower stock of all
merinos in this country and the high
est in degree in any country except
Spain. They hold their heads above
the most aristocratic of their kind,
not because their blood is any better
than other Vermont merinos, but
simply because they are Atwoods and
nothing else. Two or three years
after Colonel Humphrey brought that
first flock of merinos from their ma
tive hills in Spain, young farmer
named Stephen Atwood agreed to
work whole year ON the Humphrey
farm for just one eve from the origi-
nal importation of merinos. The con-
tract was fulfilled, and from that eve
and a Humphrey merino ram thepres-
ent Atwood merinos originated. At
wood transferred his sheep to Addison
county, and there the purity of the
blood has been sacredly preserved, an
association of breeders having been
formed for no other purpose than to
maintain that purity. Descendants
of Stephen Atwood controlled the flock
until few years ago, when it passed
into other hands. A half interest i'll
one of the rams brought $500. The
flock was separated, but the Atwoods
remain still the merinos of highest de-
gree. When lamb of this ultra blue
blood is born its ears are pierced and
silver labels, one with number on it
and the other with the owners name,
are attached to them. The number
and name are entered on the books of
the association. If the lamb is sold
OF transferred, the owner must notify
the association, so that every move
ment of that lamb from its birth to its
death is always known. No sheep
has any standing as royal -blooded
meriuo which does not wear the ear
rings and can have no certificate of
pedigree. Today the merino sheep
are raised all over the world, Aus
tralian breeders being the largest
owners; but even from Australia, that
garden spot of sheep raising, as we'll
as from every other sheep growing
country, the breeders come to Addi-
son county, VT, to obtain sciors of
he original stock whenever they want
10 improve their focks. New York
sun.
Only Hermits Should Try 1t.