OK, A TUEATISK OX 1'ILE. 



CHAPTER IX. 



OF THE RAISING AND BREEDING OF SHEEP. Breeding and raising domestic animals 

 includes, not only the multiplication of individuals, but the preservation and improvement 

 of their species, so as to ensure some desirable end ; which should always be kept fully in 

 view. 



The design, in raising Sheep, should be to produce, with the least trouble and expense, 

 the greatest quantity of the most valuable quality of fleece ; and when this is done, and 

 then only, is the system of Sheep breeding perfect. 



We are aware that there are some persons who consider that the main object in raising 

 Sheep, is to produce fine flesh, for food; arid that others entertain the opinion that wool 

 and carcass are of equal importance and equally deserving of care and attention. But tve 

 maintain that the matter which ought to absorb our undivided attention is the Jleece, and 

 that the production of sufficiently good mutton will be a necessary consequence. 



The most valuable properties of fleece, as regards its usefulness in manufactures and 

 the arts, are its fineness, its ductility, and its flexibility and elasticity, (indicating its soft- 

 ness,) its strength, and either its capacity to felt and full in an eminent degree, or its being 

 free from shrinking. Therefore, the greatest perfection in Sheep breeding and raising, 

 consists, in being able to produce an animal, whose wool is fine, soft, strong, and will felt 

 and full perfectly ; or one, whose fleece is fine, soft and strong and will not shrink. And ' 

 we propose to show that either of these objects can be effected, in different regions of the 

 United States, with one stock, and that both may be effected with two slocks, but that loth, 

 cannot be done effectually and permanently with one, nor in the same region of this 

 country. 



Upon examining the above mentioned properties of fleece, it is apparent that, inasmuch 

 as these qualities depend upon specific differences of the animals, the same species cannot, 

 by any management or skill of the breeder, be made to produce wool that will felt and 

 full, and fleece that will not shrink ; but that to vary the peculiar specific properties of 

 either, (within the range of the specific characteristics of each species,) is more or less 

 under the control of the skilful breeder. For instance, the diameter of wool, taken from 

 animals descended from the same parentage, may vary; so the ductility and elasticity of 

 filament, (and consequently the softness of the fleece,) may differ, although the race is 

 identical ; and the strength of the fibres is, doubtless, subject to the same law ; but far 

 different is the case with the property of felting, fulling and shrinking, which depends 

 upon the shape, direction and inclination of the filament, and these upon its organization ; 

 all which in the fleeces that will felt, full and shrink, are different from those that will not. 

 so much so, that we have ventured to call the one "WOOL," and the other " HAIR," and so 

 they are, in the proper understanding of those terms, for 



