APPENDIX G. 433 



APPENDIX G. 



PBOPORTIONOP WOOL TO MEAT IS SHEEP OP DIFFEEEIIT 

 AGES, SEXES AND SIZES. 



THE following was not received until this work was nearly through 

 the press, and too late to refer to it except in this place : 



POMPEY, Onon. Co., N. Y., Aug. 22, 1863. 



HON. HENRY S. RANDALL Dear Sir: Agreeable to your request, I 

 herewith send you my investigations and observations upon the compar- 

 ative weight of wool and bodies of sheep. I hope they will be of benefit 

 to the sheep breeder, as well as tle wool grower ; ana that I shall have 

 the satisfaction of knowing that I have in part repaid to the world much 

 that I owe for the investigations of those who have gone before me. 

 With high hopes, but no higher ambition than to beT called a " good 

 farmer," I remain your obedient servant, 



HOMER D. L. SWEET. 



COMPABATIVE WEIGHT OP WOOL ABTD BODIES OF SHEEP. 

 BY H. D. L. SWEET. 



The Hon. Robert R. Livingston, the first President of the first Agri- 

 cultural Society of the State of New York, in his justly celebrated essay 

 on Fine-Wooled Sheep, uses the following language : 



" The inferiority in the size of the Merino to some other breeds, 

 which some make as an objection, is, in my opinion, an important 

 advantage, not only in sheep but in every other stock not designed for 

 the draft ; because they will fatten in pastures hi which larger cattle 

 would suffer from the fatigue they must undergo, in order to procure 

 the food that is necessary for their support. 



" This meaning applies more strongly to sheep than to any other 

 stock. They are generally kept upon high and dry pastures, that are 

 frequently parched in summer, when fatigue is most irksome to them. 

 To which we may add that the fleece is not proportioned, as the food is 

 to the bulk of the animal, but to his surface, and a small sheep having 

 more surface in proportion to his bulk, must also have wool in the same 

 proportion. That is, a sheep whose live weight shall be 60 Ibs., and 

 who, of course, will require but one-quarter of the food of a sheep that 



ighs 240 Ibs. will, notwithstanding, have half as much wool (if the 



jces are equally thick,) as his gigantic brother." * 



Transactions of the Society for the Promotion of Useful Arts, Vol. II, p. 86. 



