On Jarvis's tombstone is carved a merino sheep in bas relief. The lasting legacy of William Jarvis may be the landscape he left behind. Before the advent of merino, much of Vermont was fenced with timber. The merino boom gave Vermont farmers a purpose for all those rock cairns dotting the hills they had struggled to till. Farmers hard-pressed to find enough timber for fencing turned to stone, constructing walls that are now iconic to today's Vermont landscape.