Care and Management of Sheep. 



457 



fed grain from an early age sheared about 1 Ib. more of un- 

 washed but practically the same amount of washed wool as those 

 getting no grain until after they were weaned. The early feeding 

 had produced more yolk but not more wool-fiber. With starvation 

 the yield of wool is considerably diminished. The strength of the 

 wool-fiber is dependent on the breed, the quality of the sheep, and 

 the conditions under which they are reared. Ba^ly bred and poorly 

 nourished sheep produce wool of uneven fiber, lacking strength. As 

 wool-hair is formed from the nitrogenous part of the food, the amount 

 of protein supplied sheep must not fall too low. 



743. Frequency of shearing. Weiske and Dehmel 1 studied the 

 influence of frequent shearing on the yield of wool. Two Rambouil- 

 let sheep were shorn every other month for a year, and 2 others 

 at the beginning and the end of the experiment, with the results 

 given in the following table: 



Influence of frequent shearing on growth of wool. 



The sheep shorn 6 times produced less unwashed wool, but nearly 

 25 per ct. more pure wool fiber than those shorn once. 



1 Futterungslehre, 1872, p. 511. 



