468 Transactions of thb 



sheep raising — that increase of lambs is increase of wool, mutton, and 

 money — the significance of these high percentages will be appreciated, 

 especially in contrast with the ratios so often heard of, fifty, sixty, and 

 seventy per cent.] 



SHORT OR LONG STAPLE. 



Shearing in most parts of California is performed twice a year. Some 

 contend that the sheep do better when thus shorn, and that if left 

 unshorn in the Fall, they will shed their wool before Spring. Further, 

 if shorn but once a year, a weak place may be found in the staple at 

 that part of the growth that was made during the Fall. In consequence 

 of this semi-annual shearing, the bulk of California wools are so short 

 in staple that a serious discrimination in price is made against them, and 

 of late there has been a good deal of talk about cross-breeding in order 

 to lengthen the staple, and some experiments in that direction are now 

 in progress. Before discussing the question I will ask to state a fact or 

 two that will be accepted by some readers as possessing significance in 

 what I may have to say. As to my own clip no buyer offers the objec- 

 tion that the staple is either short or weak, and for the reason that it is 

 neither. It realizes a price within one cent or less per pound of tho 

 highest price that is paid for any wool at the time it is sold. My sheep 

 do not shed their wool before Spring (they are shorn but once a year), 

 and as to their "doing well," I have yet to learn of an}- flock in Cali- 

 fornia that does better. It has good range, however — hill range — the 

 year round. Nevertheless, the reasons alleged for semi-annual shear- 

 ing — that the wool may be shed before Spring, and that a. weak spot may 

 be found in the Fall growth of the staple — have a real existence. I havo 

 formerly experienced the same difficulties, and found them to bo caused 

 solely by insufficiency (whether in quantity or quality) of tho Fall feed. 

 Both are avoided by reducing the amount of stock on the range to a 

 point that insures them ample and good feed the year round; and the 

 practical question is thus reduced to a choice between two alternatives — 

 either on the one hand, the larger flock shorn semi annually, producing 

 a short stapled, low priced clip, the flock in lower average condition and 

 yielding therefore a lower annual percentage of increase; or, on the 

 other hand, the smaller flock shorn annually, producing a long-stapled, 

 high-priced clip, the flock in higher average condition and yielding there- 

 fore a higher annual percentage of increase. Upon these alternative 

 propositions, each sheep raiser will make his own figures of experiments 

 and be guided accordingly. My experience of both methods has resulted 

 in the adoption of tho latter, and I have no doubt that, in the average 

 case, similar experiments would lead to the same result. The case is not 

 unlike that of fruit growing. The younger grower finds it hard to 

 prune away four fifths of his new wood and pull off lour fifths of the 

 young fruit. The louger he is in the business tho more resolutely ho 

 prunes and the more relentlessly he sacrifices quantity of fruit to 

 quality. So in sheep raising: where the grower has secured a fine 

 increase in lambs, it is hard for him to cull out ewes both old and young 

 for the butcher along with the wethers, so as to keep his band down to 

 a point where his range can carry them in high condition tho year 

 round; but 1 think that the longer he stays in the business the more 

 critically will experience teach him to cull, and tho more to go in for 

 quality — rigorously sacrificing quantity after the proper limit of his 

 range has been reached. 



