94 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



of less value, and that it is essentially a weaker and 

 less hardy animal. 



Many of the imported sheep of this variety, as well 

 as their descendants, did, undeniably, produce very 

 light fleeces in proportion to carcass. I have seen 

 them repeatedly beaten, fleece for fleece, by little com- 

 pact American Merinos of scarcely half their size. 



It is true also of the best of them that their fleeces 

 are much lighter in proportion to mere bulk (that is 

 when equal force is applied to compress the fleece in 

 the wool press*), than those of the American variety. 

 If both are unwashed, the American fleece has far 

 most yolk. If washed equally well, the American 

 fleece still retains far more of that substance. Yolk 

 is mainly an animal soap, the constituents of which 

 will presently be given, but it contains a trace of 

 insoluble fatty matter. "Whether from a greater pro- 

 portion of the last, or for some other cause, the yolk 

 of the American sheep is less readily liberated it 

 requires more previous soaking and if the sheep are 

 put dry into cold brook water, and not kept in over 

 long the fashionable mode of washing in our coun- 

 try the French Merino's wool is nearly as free from 

 this substance before it goes in, as that of a class of 

 American Merinos is when they come out ; and ac- 

 cording to my observation, the yolk reappears twice 

 as rapidly in the American fleece after washing. In- 

 deed this must be true, for where there is double or 

 treble secretion during the year, the process of secre- 

 tion must go on with double or treble rapidity ; con- 

 sequently, if two or three weeks are allowed to 

 intervene, as usual, between washing and shearing, 



* See Appendix D. 



