STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 141 



whose name is unknown to us, but "v\hose views are well expressed and 

 directly to the point we wish to devehVp : 



" Wool, nature's provision for protecting the body of the animal in 

 winter, makes a large draft upon the food of the sheep ; and as sheep 

 have not the skill or power to elaborate good wool from empty racks, 

 unsuitable feed, or the east wind, the necessity of good feed, and of suf- 

 ficient quantity thereof, will be readily acknowledged. In order to 

 make healthful muscle and good wool, the constituents must be provided 

 for the flock at all seasons of the year. The wool is supposed to con.- 

 tain the chief constituents of the body. It consists of phosphates, sul- 

 phates, and chlorides, salts forming the skeleton of the body, and pre- 

 sents, upon analysis, a great similarity to the composition of bone; it 

 also combines a fatty matter corresponding to other animal fats, also a 

 composition identical with flesh or muscle. 



" These facts, revealed by chemistry, seem to enforce the importance 

 of understanding the art of feeding sheep, whether wool, or mutton, or 

 both, be the end in view, as both require the presence of the same ele- 

 ments in the feed. Hence, as liberal feeding promotes the growth and 

 fattening of the body, so also it is favorable to the growth of the wool. 

 The quality of the wool may always be taken as a sure indication of the 

 condition of the animal producing it. Its softness indicates a thriving 

 condition of the sheep bearing it, and to this is attributed the presence 

 of the yolk, an oily substance having a powerful influence upon both 

 the growth and softness of the wool. Where the yolk is deficient, wool 

 is always more or less harsh and crisp. A deficiency of this in wool 

 after it is grown impairs its quality, and whether attributable to inade- 

 quate feed or disease, causes the animal to lose its wool and is indubita- 

 ble evidence of an ill-conditioned sheep." 



It is also well known that an insufficient supply of food, by restraining 

 the secretions, checks, or for the time suspends the growth of the fibre. 



In California, where all the herbage is of annual growth, springing 

 from the seed and passing through a rapid growth, to stand under our 

 rainless summer skies for months a dry feed, but almost as nutritious as 

 well-cured hay until the early winter rains wash out its nutritive ele- 

 ments, though sheep may live upon the native ranges throughout the 

 year, they cannot be kept in uniform thriving condition ; and whenever 

 an extraordinary season occurs, when, either by excessive rains, or by 

 unusual dryness, the growth of herbage is retarded, great suffering and 

 loss are sure to follow. With the exception of a few localities where the 

 feed is abundant at all seasons, and the sheep always in good order, we 

 find the flocks thriving through the spring and early part of the sum- 

 mer, graduallj* falling oft" through the autumn months, general!}' very 

 poor through the early months of winter — the very period when they 

 most need to be kept up in condition — and after the new grasses begin 

 to grow, gaining very rapidly again until fat. The result of these alter- 

 nations is most remarkably indicated in the fibre of the wool. During 

 the summer months, though the sheep maintain a fair degree of flesh, 

 the dry feed and frequent short supply of water are not favorable to the 

 growth of wool, and the fibre pushed out under these unfavorable con- 

 ditions is lacking in yolk, except on the lambs, with which the supply of 

 milk drawn from the mothers replaces to some extent the green and 

 succulent grasses, and permits a somewhat more favorable growth. 

 Through the fall and winter months, as the feed becomes more scant}" 



