Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1899-01-13
ADDISON CO. MERlNOS.
The Whole World Looks to This County
for the Best Blood.

"The bluest blooded, most aristocratic
of all domestic animals in the United
States is the merino Sheep" said Aaron
Spencer, New England stock breeder,
land nowhere else In the world, not even
among the hills of Spain-the original
home of the merino-is this valuable ami
NAL found In such perfection and purity
of breeding as among the Green Noun
tains of Vermont. There are merinos in
that region, and particularly In Addison
county, whose pedigree is traced back
without break In the record or blot
in the blood for more than a century, d.
rectly to ancestral pastures in Spain.
TO look at a merino sheep, unless you
know ali tine 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 free from the greasy, sticky,
ill-smelling mass, the royal-blooded
merino is not sight to cause much EN-
thusiasm in a spectator who is looking
for outward beauty. But the blacker
and GUNNER and more rhlnoceros like
its fleece the better 1t 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 particle of it from being dis
sipated. Members of this arstocratic
family of sheep of the Vermont breed
have taken on this unprepossessing and
uncouth appearance and rank smell to
such degree that they have easily COM
manded $1,000 apiece from eager breed
ers. knew an Addison county flock of
merinos, thirty in number, to be sold,
just as they stood in the pasture, for
$4,000 cash.
"For centuries the government of
Spain!prohibited, under heavy penalties,
the expectation of merino sheep, know
ing well the great value of that product
of its mountain slopes. and being resolved
not to share it with any other country.
In 1902, Col. David Humphrey of Con-
Spain, and in that 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. These sheep were placed
on the Humphrey farm, near Derby, and
from that original stock the present
breed of Vermont merinos sprang.
"But there Is an aristocracy even
among blue blooded merinos, and the
family known as the Atwoods may be
said to be the Mayfower stock of all
merinos in this country and the highest
in degree in any country except Spain.
They hold their heads above the most
aristocratic of their kind, not because
their blood is Fanny better than other
Vermont merinos, but simply because
they are Atwoods and nothing else.
Two or three years after Col. Humphrey
brought that first flock of merinOs from
their native hills in Spain young
farmer named Stephen Atwood agreed
to work whole year on the Humphrey
farm for Just one eve from the original
importation of merinos. The contract
was fulfilled, and from that eve and a
Humphrey merlno ram the present
Atwood mernos originated. Atwood
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 in oneiof the rams brought
$500. The flock was separated, but the
Atwoods remain still the merinos of
highest degree. When a lamb of this
ultra blue blood is born, its ears are
pierced and SILVER labels, one with a
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 or transferred, the owner must noti-
fly the association, and the transaction is
carefully noted on the books. And SUBJ
sequent disposition of the lamb must also
be reported to the association, so that
every movement of that lamb from it's
birth to its death is always known. No
sheep has any standing as a royal blood
ed merino which does not wear the ear
rings, and can have no certificate of ped
igree. Today merino sheep are raised all
over the world, Australian breeders being
the largest owners; but even from Aus
tralia, that garden spot of sheep raising,
as well as from every other sheep-grow-
ing country, the breeders come to Ad-
Olson county, Vermont, to obtain scions
of the original stock whenever they want
to improve their flocks."-New York
Sun.
sale Prices of French Horses.