The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-02-10
SHEEP OF BLUE BLOOD
MERlNOS OF LONG PEDlGREES
IN VERMONT.
They Are Ugly and Dirty, Wear Silver
Earrings and Have Commanded
$4,000 Aplece-How They Came from
Spain.

The bluest blooded. most aristo-
cratic Of all domestic animals in the
United States is the merino Sheep
SAID Aaron Spencer, a New England
stock breeder, and nowhere else in the
world, not even among the hills Of
Spain-the original home of the mer-
mos this valuable animal found in
such perfection and purity of breeding
as among the Green mountains of Yer
mont. There are merinos in that re-
glon,and particularly in Addison coun-
ty, whose pedigree is traced back with
out a break in the record Of a blot in
the blood for more than a century, di-
rectly to ancestral pastures in Spain.
I look at a 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, b~lackened by an
oOZy, gummy substance, which, to put
1t mild, is by no means fragrant, hang
ing to its body in rhinoceros-like folds
and wrinkles, the eyes barely visible.
tiliO holllllS Jul TIE llOSp SIOWluS
from the greasy, sticky, ill-smelling
mass, the rOyal-blOoded merino is not
a sight to cause much enthusiasm in q
spectator who is looking for outward
beauty. But the blacker and gummier
n more rninOcerOs-like it's fleece the
better it is. Breeders think so much
OF that dirty gum On their merinos
tha thny corof,,11 IL, cho1+pu tl,o,, frpr,
showers, and even heavy dews, to pre-
vent a particle of it from being dissi-
pated. Members Of this a]ristocratic
family OF sheep OF the Vermont breed
have taken on this unprepossessing
and uncouth appearance and rank
smell to such a degree that they have
easily commanded $4,000 apiece from
eager buyers. / knew an Addison
county flock Of merinOs, thirty in num-
Der, 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 sheer, know
ing we'll the great value Of that prod
net OF its mountain slopes, and being
resolved not to share it with any other
country. In 1902 Col. David Hum
phrey OF Connecticut was United
States minister to Spain, and he made
himself so popular at the court in Ma
drid that when he retired from Office
in that year, his request to be permit
ted to fetch with him to America a
number Of merinos of known superior
lty of blood was granted by the Span
ish government. Those sheep were
placed on the Humphrey farm. near
Derby, and from that original stock
the present royal breed of Vermont
merinOs sprang.
But there is an aristCcracy even
among blue-blcoded merinos, and the
family known as the Atwoods may be
said to be the Mayfower 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 merincs, but simply be-
cause 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, a young farmer named Stephen
Atwood agreed to work a whole year
on the Humphrey farm for just one
eve from the original importation Of
merinOs. The contract was fulfilled.
and from that eve n a Humphrey
merino ram the present Atwood me-
rinos originated. Atwood transferred
his sheep to Addison county. and there
the purity Of the blood has been sa-
credly preserved, an association CT
breeders having been formed for no
other purpose than to maintain that
purity. Descendants Of Stephen At
wood controlled the flock until a few
years ago. when it passed into other
hands. A half interest in one Of the
rams brought $500. The flock was
separated, but the Atwoods remain the
merinos Of highest degree. When a
lamb of this ultra blue blood is born,
it's 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 en-
tered on the books Of the association.
1t the lamb is sold or transferred. the
owner must notify the association, and
the transaction is carefully noted on
the books. Any subsequent dispos;-
ton of the lamb must also be reported
to the association. SO that every move
ment of that lamb from its birth to its
death is always known. No sheen has
any standing as a royal-blCoded me-
rino which does not wear the earrings.
and can have no certificate of pedigree.
Today merino sheep are raised all over
the world, Australian breeders being
the largest Owners; but even from
Australia, that garden SPOT Of sheen
raising, as well as from every other
sheep growing country, the breeders
come to Addison county, Vermont, to
obtain scions Of the original stock
whenever they want to improve their
fOcks."