196 State Board of Agricut.ture, &c. 



shear on an average from ten to tifteen pounds per head. 

 Some extreme cases of heavy shearing in which ewes have 

 sheared nearly twenty pounds, and our best rams from 

 twenty-live to over thirty pounds. I can hardly believe 

 that the breeders of former times expected to meet with 

 such grand results. 



We learn from facts derived from investigation that our 

 sheep formerly possessed from 5,000 to 5,500 wool hairs to 

 the square inch ; of the fourth and fifth generations about 

 18,000 ; of the twentieth generation 27,000 ; showing a 

 rapid progress. Our sheep of to-day have from 40,000 to 

 48,000 wool hairs to the square inch. Mr. Jeppe remarks 

 in his report on wool, at Munich, Bavaria, in 1844, that 

 upon a heavy fleeced animal he counted, on one-sixteenth 

 of a square inch, 2,618 wool hairs, and on a thin fleeced 

 animal 1, 018,and the wool was equally fine in l)otli .fleeces. 



I am told that the past year has brought men from more 

 parts of the country than ever before, which shows an 

 increasing demand for Vermont sheep. I will give a few 

 statistics of the sheep and wool productions of the principal 

 countries in the world There are over 289,000,000 sheep, 

 which produce nearly 1,000,000,000 pounds of wool, 

 worth $302,660,000. And the United States produce 117,- 

 000,000 pounds of wool, and have over 32,000,000 sheep, 

 whose wool is wortli over ir.70,000,000. These amounts of 

 wool are annual. In 1870 there were 2,891 woolen estab- 

 lishments, furnishing employment for 80,053 people. Ver- 

 mont has sixty-five woolen mills. These statistics show the 

 extent of this business throughout the world. 



