Sheep

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SHEEP

SHEEP. Sixteenth-century European colonists introduced sheep into the Americas. They accompanied the Spanish to Mexico, while the English brought sheep to Virginia and Massachusetts. They came along with the Dutch to New York and with the Swedes to New Jersey. These animals were unimproved, however, because farm-ers had yet to begin selective breeding of their sheep.

In colonial times, famers raised sheep as a part of self-sufficient agriculture to supply wool for homespun clothing and not for commercial purposes. Because of wolves, improper care, and British competition, the number of sheep remained relatively few and the quality and quantity of the wool poor. The industry improved somewhat during the American Revolution but slumped after peace and the resumption of British trade.

The first decades of the nineteenth century witnessed a marked change. Two events of importance occurred: the introduction of merino sheep and the exclusion of British competitors from the American market by the various nonintercourse acts and the War of 1812. In 1801–1802, the first merinos arrived from France and Spain. In 1807, with the passage of the Embargo Act, native mills increased, wool prices skyrocketed, and the demand for fine-wool sheep became insatiable. A merino craze followed. Merino wool sold for $2 a pound, and the early importers sold sheep for $1,000 a head. In the midst of this craze, the Napoleonic armies broke the Spanish restrictions on the exportation of merinos, and between 1808 and 1811, importers brought approximately 24,000 merinos into the United States. Sheep raising had entered its commercial phase.

After 1815 British woolen importations again depressed the industry. Soon, however, the growth of the factory system and the tariff of 1828 revived it. Woolen manufactures doubled in a decade, the price of wool went up, and eastern flocks increased tremendously. In the 1830s, 60 percent of American sheep were in New England and the middle Atlantic states. After 1840, because of westward migration, improved transportation facilities, easy access to cheap western land, and an increase in the prices of foodstuffs, the center of sheep raising shifted westward. By 1850 it was in the Ohio Valley.

The Civil War produced a second merino craze. After the war, the type of sheep raised in the United States underwent improvement through importations of European breeds and selective breeding. Sheep raising continued to expand west to the Rocky Mountains and Pacific coast states. Farmers in this region at first concentrated on wool production, while those of the eastern United States, under the stimulus of growing urban markets, shifted to mutton production. Eastern sheep farmers turned to new English mutton breeds, including the Leicester and Shropshire. After 1890 sheep growers of the western United States began to place more emphasis on dual-purpose sheep, and mutton production and lamb feeding developed in this area as well.

The importance of western states in the raising of sheep continued into the twentieth century, and by 1935, 60 percent of all the sheep in the United States were in that region. The total number of sheep raised throughout the country reached a peak of 51.8 million that same year. By 1973 the number of sheep had declined to 17.7 million. Of these, only 48 percent were coming from the western states, which represented a shift away from the region. By 2000 the number had fallen even more steeply to only 7 million, but the western United States had regained its dominance of the industry, with Texas leading the nation in both number of sheep-raising operations and animals. Currently, 80 percent of sheep in the United States are raised for consumption, but because few Americans regularly eat lamb or mutton, Mexico imports the vast majority of the meat. Nonetheless, the burgeoning Hispanic and Middle Eastern population in the United States, which does frequently consume lamband mutton, is increasing the domestic demand for the product.