exposure by Sue WeaverWren is proud of her sheep heritage !
Last workweek , I tell you some of the coolheaded things Uzzi and I get word about woollen andsheep . Here are some more thing to recognize .
Queen Isabella of Spain financed the voyages of Christopher Columbus and Hernando Cortez with money derived from the Spanish fleece industry . It was based on the sale of wool fromMerino sheep . However , when Columbus made his second ocean trip in 1493 to Cuba and Santo Domingo , he bring ultra - hardy , coarse - woollen Churro meat sheep instead of Merinos . In 1519 , part of Cortez ’s walk intellectual nourishment supply was comprised of their posterity . These became the ancestors of one of today’srarerdual - intention woollen and kernel breeds , Navajo - Churros . Spanish vanquisher take Churros to South America , too , where they replaced the “ sheep of Peru ” ( llamas ) as primary farm animal .
The first sheep in the young American Colonies set sail for Jamestown in 1608 , but the settler consort out of solid food and ate them during the winter of 1609 . Fifteen age after settle Plymouth Colony , the Pilgrims purchased sheep from Dutch dealers on Manhattan Island , though they likely had a few sheep before then . By 1643 , there were 1,000 sheep in Massachusetts Bay Colony alone . Records show that Governor Winthrop of the Connecticut Colony acquired a flock ofSouthdown sheepin 1646 . Although Britain presently forbade further import , colonial Americans proceed smuggling chiliad of sheep .
By 1698 , America was exporting woolen goods back to Europe . English leader were outraged and before long criminalise the American wool barter , penalise participation by cut off a person ’s right helping hand . Restrictions on raising sheep and manufacturing woollen , along with the Stamp Act , led to the American Revolutionary War . Spinning and weaving were soon considered patriotic acts . President of the United States George Washington , Thomas Jefferson and James Madison , all of whom raised sheep at their estates , chose American - made woollen case to wear at their inaugurations . The first wool factory in the United States was establish in 1788 in Hartford , Conn.
Many breed came to North America in the 1800s . The firstBorder Cheviots , for case , come to America in the 1840s when Thomas Laidler , a shepherd on the Cheviot Hills between Scotland and Northern England , sent each of his four children living in New Lisborn , N.Y. , three Cheviot sheep . Perhaps our dear are their descendants .
close sheared grass lawns first come out in 17th C England at the home of wealthy landholder . In olden days , even in America , big estates used sheep to keep the grass clipped short . Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grazed sheep on the White House lawn . Woodrow Wilson revived the custom during World War I for two reasons : According the White House Historical Association , the flock , which numbered 18 at its peak , saved manpower by cutting the Mary Jane , and President Wilson raised $ 52,823 for the American Red Cross by auctioning their fleeces .
parking area preserve sheep for lawn cutting service , too . William Zinsser , writing inThe American Scholarmagazine , say that when he was a son in the 1930s , he and his sister fed stale bread to some of the 300 sheep that kept Central Park raffish in earliest days . When not out grazing , the flock lived in an radical - fancy red - brick b with square-toed Gothic gables and spire built in 1871 . Those were favourable sheep !
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