Spanish or American Merino Rams and Ewes ... Selected by E. N. Bissell & Co. ... from the Best Vermont Flocks. Catalog

[San Francisco], 1884. Wraps. Very good condition. Unrecorded catalog with wonderful woodblock illustrations for merino wool raised in Vermont and shipped to Sydney, Australia via San Francisco. With a wonderful wood block frontispiece showing "Rip Van Winkle" a very heavily folded merino sheep, with caption, "No. 45 Bred and owned by H. S. Brookins, Richville Vt. ..."

These merino sheep with their high quality wool came to Vermont in about 1810, brought by the retired American Consul to Spain, William Jarvis, who gained permission to import the valuable sheep when Napoleon began seizing estates in Spain. Jarvis bought a farm in Vermont, and introduced the Merinos; they became the most important Vermont industry by the 1820s, thriving on rocky land unsuitable for farming. By the 1880s the industry was no longer profitable inside the US due to competition from the western states; Bissell resourcefully looked to the Australian market.

16mo, frontispiece, 56pp, wood block illustrations throughout. Original orange plain paper wrappers. Staple bound. Short nick foredge front wrapper, short chip top of spine, otherwise very good condition. Not recorded on OCLC or Trove.