220 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



about wool, don't let that trouble you at all ; but feed your 

 sheep well, keep them right up, and you will surely come out 

 well. I can take a fleece of wool, and pick a staple out of 

 that fleece ; and if that sheep has varied in condition, if it has 

 varied in its feed to any considerable extent, I will tell you 

 Very near where that occurred and when it occurred. 



I have seen a lot of wool from a flock of sheep that had 

 been driven from Ohio into Illinois ; and, when I examined 

 that wool, I was surprised to find that every staple in the 

 whole of those fleeces broke in a certain place. The upper 

 part of that staple was plump, full, and soft : the lower part 

 of it was thin and wiry. I called the attention of the owner 

 of the wool to that fact. "Well," he says, "I didn't suppose 

 you would find that out." I said, " Find what out ? All I 

 have found out is this, that the upper part of the wool was 

 grown on an entirely different pasture from the lower part 

 of it." — "Well," he says, "you have found it out. These 

 sheep last fall were driven from Ohio to Illinois. They 

 passed from a soft, fine pasture in Ohio, to a coarse, wiry 

 pasture in Illinois." You know the kind of grass they have 

 in Illinois : it is rough and coarse, and that wool partook 

 somewhat of the character of the pasture. 



I was buying wool at a factory, and a person came with his 

 wool ; and among the rest he had a ram's fleece. I looked 

 the wool over, and threw out the ram's fleece. I said, " I 

 don't want that : I would rather you would take it back." — 

 " Why," said he, " that is the best fleece I have got. I paid 

 something like fifty dollars for that ram in Canada." I said, 

 " I know it, and I will tell you what you did with that ram. 

 You had paid a big price for him, and you were so anxious 

 to get your money back, that you not only let him serve 

 your own flock, but everybody's else sheep that came around, 

 and you came near killing him ; and there is the place on 

 the wool where that occurred." After the ram had served 

 the sheep, the owner began to feed him better, and then the 

 wool started to grow again. There was one kind of wool 

 at one end of the staple, and another at the other, and cotted 

 between. As soon as I told him what he had been doing, he 

 said, " I should like to know how you found it out." I told 

 him. 



You can by good feed increase the weight of wool on 



