126 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



Fineness. The grower knows his market, and 

 must produce an article adapted to it. In the Ameri- 

 can market there is a much larger demand for medium 

 than fine wools, and the former commands much the 

 feest price in proportion to cost of production. ' It is 

 to be hoped, however, that the demand for fine wools 

 will increase. Whatever the quality aimed at, it 

 should be the same throughout the flock so far as it is 

 practicable. 



Evenness. Evenness of quality in every part of the 

 fleece, so far as this can be attained, is one of the first 

 points of a well bred sheep. Jar is very objection- 

 able, but not as much so as what the Germans term 

 dog's hair hair growing out through the wool on the 

 thighs, the edges of the neck folds, about the roots of 

 the horn in rams,* or standing scattered here and 

 there through the fleece or inside the legs. This indi- 

 cates bad blood or a defective course of breeding. 



Trueness and Soundness. Wool should be of equal 

 diameter from the root to the point of the fibre. It 

 should especially be free from any finer and weaker 

 spot or " joint" in it, occasioned by a temporary ill- 

 ness or other low state of the animal. This can often 

 be detected by the naked eye, and always by pulling 

 the fibre. Wool is said to be sound, where it is strong 

 and elastic. 



Pliancy and Softness are considerations of the first 

 importance, not only as indicia of other qualities, but 

 intrinsically. If we can suppose two lots of wool 

 exactly to resemble each other in every other particu- 



* When the back of a ram's head has been severely bruised in 

 fighting, hair sometimes succeeds to the original wool, and offers np 

 proof of bad breeding. 



