576 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



throughout the season, as there is no cause for the sheep rubbing or 

 otherwise breaking the compactness of it. Another advantage to the 

 fleece that seems to follow dipping at this time is that it seems to lessen 

 the tendency for the sheep to lose their wool in spots too early in the 

 season. When the fleece is clean and healthy it seems to continue growing 

 longer and the wool does not peel in patches. 



Dipping in the fall is more for the purpose of removing from the fleece 

 such foreign matter as may have been gathered during the summer, and 

 also freeing it from any of the parasites that prove such an annoyance 

 during the winter season. Even under the best conditions the fleece is 

 likely to become filled with sand and other foreign matter, which during 

 the winter would produce such irritation as causes the sheep to rub 

 against sharp surfaces and destroy the compactness of the fleece. By 

 dipping them late in the fall, when the ground is frozen, and then keeping 

 them away from the straw stacks, feeding them in racks that prevent the 

 chaff from falling into the wool, it is possible to put a clip on the market 

 in the spring just as clean as if the sheep had been washed previous to 

 being shorn. 



It is hard to measure the damage that is done to the fleece alone, to say 

 nothing of the thrift of the sheep, by overlooking dipping in the fall. It 

 is quite common to see sheep in the ordinary markets of the counrty with 

 fleece badly broken by tearing at them, rubbing under wagons, or through 

 some such means, through the endeavors to get rid of the irritation of 

 the dirt that was left in the fleece. Such fleeces are likely to become 

 cotted, especially if the sheep have not been dipped in the spring so as to 

 encourage the secretion of yolk. A fibre of wool is covered with scales 

 that overlap each other similarly to the shingles on a roof. To keep 

 these scales down and to prevent them from warping just as shingles 

 would do, there must be a liberal supply of yolk in the fleece. If this 

 yolk is not secreted, owing to the unthrifty condition of the skin, the 

 scales rise and the fibres become matted, and finally so bad as to be 

 known as cotted. Fleeces of this kind sell for three or four cents per 

 pound less than they otherwise would on the general market. The fleece 

 of a sheep that has not been dipped — one that is dirty or discolored — also 

 sells three or four cents per pound less in the Chicago market than the 

 fleece of a sheep that has been cleaned by dipping. These are facts that 

 may be verifled every spring in the Chicago market. This difference, 

 applied to a fleece, would pay for the dipping of more than a dozen sheep. 



While the foregoing applies especially to breeding flocks, there are just 

 as forcible reasons for dipping feeders. In feeding sheep it is of prime 

 importance to have them reach as rapidly as possible that sappy and 

 thrifty condition which is conducive to good gains. Dipping will hasten 

 this, and it also removes the risk of unlimited losses through an outbreak 

 of scab. It is good policy to take it for granted that the feeders are in 

 ni'ed of dipping, rather than wait tor the evidences of it, which usually 

 come when the sheep should go to market. 



