This name is popularly applied to the common coarse-woolled sheep of the
country, which existed here previously to the importation of the
improved breeds. These were of foreign and mostly of English origin, and
could probably claim a common descent from no one stock. The early
settlers, emigrating from different sections of the British Empire, and
a portion of them from other parts of Europe, brought with them, in all
probability, each the favorite breed of his own immediate neighborhood,
and the admixture of these formed the mongrel family now under
consideration. Amid the perils of war and the incursions of beasts of
prey, they were carefully preserved. As early as 1676, New England was
spoken of as "abounding with sheep."
These common sheep yielded a wool suitable only for the coarsest
fabrics, averaging, in the hands of good farmers, from three to three
and a half pounds of wool to the fleece. They were slow in arriving at
maturity, compared with the improved English breeds, and yielded, when
fully grown, from ten to fourteen pounds of a middling quality of mutton
to the quarter. They were usually long-legged, light in the
fore-quarter, and narrow on the breast and back; although some rare
instances might be found of flocks with the short legs, and some
approximation to the general form of the improved breeds. They were
excellent breeders, often rearing, almost entirely destitute of care,
and without shelter, one hundred per cent. of lambs; and in small
flocks, a still larger proportion. These, too, were usually dropped in
March, or the earlier part of April. Restless in their disposition,
their impatience of restraint almost equalled that of the untamed
Argali, from which they were descended; and in many sections of the
country it was common to see from twenty to fifty of them roving, with
little regard to enclosures, over the possessions of their owner and his
neighbors, leaving a large portion of their wool adhering to bushes and
thorns, and the remainder placed nearly beyond the possibility of
carding, by the tory-weed and burdock, so common on new lands.
To this general character of the native flocks, there was but one
exception--a considerably numerous and probably accidental variety,
known as the _Otter breed_, or _Creepers_. These were excessively
duck-legged, with well-formed bodies, full chests, broad backs, yielding
a close, heavy fleece, of medium quality of wool. They were deserved
favorites where indifferent stone or wood fences existed, since their
power of locomotion was absolutely limited to their enclosures, if
protected by a fence not less than two feet high. The quality of their
mutton equalled, while their aptitude to fatten was decidedly superior
to, their longer-legged contemporaries. The race is now quite extinct.
An excellent variety, called the Arlington sheep, was produced by
General Washington, from a cross of a Persian ram upon the Bakewell,
which bore wool fourteen inches in length, soft, silky, and admirably
suited to combing. These, likewise, have long since become incorporated
with the other flocks of the country.
The old common stock of sheep, as a distinct family, have nearly or
quite disappeared, owing to universal crossing, to a greater or less
extent, with the foreign breeds of later introduction. The first and
second cross with the Merino resulted in a decided improvement, and
produced a variety exceedingly valuable for the farmer who rears wool
solely for domestic purposes. The fleeces are of uneven fineness, being
hairy on the thighs, dew-lap, etc.; but the general quality is much
improved, the quantity is considerably augmented, the carcass is more
compact and nearer the ground, and they have lost their unquiet and
roving propensities. The cross with the Saxon, for reasons hereafter to
be given, has not generally been so successful. With the Leicester and
Downs, the improvement, so far as form size, and a propensity to take on
fat are concerned, is manifest.