513 Feeds and Feeding, 



II. Wool Production. 



781. Influence of soil and climate. — The effects of geological 

 formations and soils generally are quite marked on the character- 

 istics of sheep. Brown i shows that soil in the vegetation it pro- 

 duces, and climate, were prime factors in evolving the various 

 breeds of English sheep; the rich low lands with their abundance 

 of nutritious grasses producing the heavy-bodied, plethoric Loug- 

 wools, while the next higher grade of lands with less abundant 

 herbage gives the Downs and Middle- wools, leaving to the mount- 

 ains and more scant herbage the active, still lighter breeds. 



Coleman 2 states that the peculiar luster of the Lincoln wool 

 diminishes when these sheep pass to a less congenial soil; that 

 wool in certain districts of Yorkshire brings a higher i)rice than 

 that of other localities, the advantage being probably due to a 

 favorable combination of soil and cUmate. He farther states 

 that limestone soils, while for many reasons peculiarly suited to 

 sheep raising, have a tendency to produce a harshness in wool 

 which renders it less valuable than that from sheep living on 

 clays or gravels. 



While a dry, porous soil is no doubt directly favorable to the 

 general healthfulness of sheep, there seems a further possible 

 beneficial result through a finer, more nutritious quality of the 

 food plants grown on such soils. Chemical analysis may not be 

 able to discover or measure this difference in composition or 

 quality, yet its existence seems probable. 



The ability of man to overcome the differences marked by 

 nature is frequently surprising. Darwin ^ quotes Lasterye: *' The 

 preservation of the (Spanish) Merino race in its utmost purity 

 at the Cape of Good Hope, in the marshes of Holland, and under 

 the rigorous climate of Sweden, furnishes an additional support 

 of this my unalterable principle that fine- wool sheep may be kept 

 wherever industrious men and intelligent breeders exist." 



At the Wisconsin Station, * Craig found that lambs fed grain 

 from an early age grew faster than those getting no grain, and 



^ British Sheep Farming, 



* Cattle, Sheep and Pigs of Great Britain. 



* Animals and Plants under Domestication. 



* Kept. 1896. 



