In North America, there are none, strictly speaking, except the Rocky
Mountain breed, already mentioned. The broad-tailed sheep of Asia and
Africa were brought into the United States about seventy years ago,
under the name of the Tunisian Mountain sheep, and bred with the native
flocks. Some of them were subsequently distributed among the farmers of
Pennsylvania, and their mixed descendants were highly prized as
prolific, and good nurses, coming early to maturity, attaining large
weight, of a superior quality of carcass, and yielding a heavy fleece of
excellent wool. The principal objection made to them was the difficulty
of propagation, which always required the assistance of the shepherd.
The lambs were dropped white, red, tawny, bluish, or black; but all,
excepting the black, grew white as they approached maturity, retaining
some spots of the original color on the cheeks and legs, and sometimes
having the entire head tawny or black. The few which descended from the
original importations have become blended with American flocks, and have
long ceased to be distinguishable from them. The common sheep of Holland
were early imported by the Dutch emigrants, who originally colonized New
York; but they, in like manner, have long since ceased to exist as a
distinct variety.
Improved European breeds have been so largely introduced during the
present century, that the United States at present possesses every known
breed which could be of particular benefit to its husbandry. By the
census of 1860, there were nearly twenty-three and a half millions of
sheep in this country, yielding upwards of sixty and a half million
pounds of wool. An almost infinite variety of crosses have taken place
between the Spanish, English, and "native" families; carried, indeed, to
such an extent that there are, comparatively speaking, few flocks in the
United States that preserve entire the distinctive characteristics of
any one breed, or that can lay claim to unmixed purity of blood.
The principal breeds in the United States are the so-called "Natives;"
the Spanish and Saxon Merinos, introduced from the countries whose names
they bear: the New Leicester, or Bakewell; the South-Down; the Cotswold;
the Cheviot; and the Lincoln--all from England.