FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 123 



Folds, The Spanish, French, and German breeders 

 approved of folds in the skin, considering them indi- 

 cations of a heavy fleece. The French have bred 

 them over the entire bodies of many of their sheep. 

 I have seen two hours and a half expended by an 

 active and skilful shearer, in my barn, in getting the 

 fleece decently off a ram of this stamp. This might 

 do better in a different climate, and in countries 

 where labor costs nothing ; but the additional quan- 

 tity of wool will not pay for it in this.* Besides, it 

 is unsightly, because excessively unnatural. A deep, 

 soft, plaited dewlap on both sexes, and some slight 

 corrugation on the neck of the ram, were all our 

 older breeders of the Merino desired in this way. 

 The fashion has extended to heavy neck folds, particu- 

 larly on the i am, a short fold or two back of the 

 elbow, and some small ones round and on the roots 

 of the tail and on the breech the latter running in 



* I mean additional quantity caused by the folds of the skin, for as 

 a mere " sign 1 ' 1 of a thick fleece they amount to nothing. The cost of 

 additional labor is not the sole consideration. It is frequently a diffi- 

 cult thing to find time to shear a large flock of sheep between the 

 raiii storms from 15th of June to 10th of July. The farmer is often 

 compelled to house his flocks for twenty -four hours in succession, to 

 keep them dry for the shearers ; and besides getting miserably dirty 

 with green dung, they become so hollow and lank (for they will 

 scarcely touch dry hay), and their skins so flabby, that it almost 

 doubles the difficulty of shearing them. And this is very injurious 

 treatment to ewes having young lambs. PrimS shearers are scarce. 

 What then would he do, who had BOO or 500 such sheep as I have 

 named in the text, to get sheared I Suppose he obtained five or even 

 ten pounds more wool from 100 sheep, would it not be vastly more 

 economical to go to the expense of keeping one or two additional 

 sheep to obtain it ? There is no sensible point of view in .which this ex- 

 cessive folding or wrinkling of the skin over the whole body is not an 

 unmitigated nuisance ! 



