OD FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



colored, while the oil or gum of the Spanish Merino 

 is so adhesive and sticky it is difficult, and in many 

 of them impossible, to wash it out of their wool by 

 ordinary brook-washing ; and as it is the yolk or oily 

 matter contained in the fleece, causing the dnst ancl 

 other matter to adhere to it, which gives the external 

 color, the Spanish Merinos are generally darker on the 

 surface than the French, and it is this excess of oil in 

 the Spanish Merino which causes their fleeces to lose 

 so large a percentage in weight when cleansed for 

 manuiacturers' use. Experiments made with the two 

 kinds of wool, by reliable and experienced manufac- 

 turers have proved that as much cloth can be made of 

 the same number of pounds of -unwashed French 

 Merino wool as can be made of an equal number of 

 pounds of brook-washed Spanish Merino wool in the 

 condition it is usually sold. 



" In answer to your inquiry as to the color of the 

 wool of the French sheep when opened on the back, 

 and if their oil is white or yellow, I would say their 

 wool is generally of a cream-color, or has a yellowish 

 cast, and the oil or yolk in their fleece is a similar 

 color ; still, when washed, their wool is of a pure 

 white. 



" The wool of some of the French sheep is naturally 

 quite white when opened on the body, without being 

 washed ; but I have invariably found those having the 

 whitish wool (when alike in other respects) were the 

 lightest shearers."* 



The following statement of E. L. Gage, of De 

 Buyter, N. Y. (made in behalf of his father and 

 himself), contains interesting details in respect to the 

 management of these sheep, by persons whose skill 

 and success in that particular have not been ex- 

 celled : 



* This letter is dated January 11, 1862. 



