FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 129 



washed the next day in soft water falling in a swift 

 heavy current over a mill-dam, or from an aqueduct, 

 and the owner will find (perhaps to his consternation) 

 that even his black gum has disappeared, unless, per- 

 haps, on old rams and a few incorrigibly dirty and 

 " gummy" ewes. Yolk of any form that will remain 

 in visible masses in the wool after such a wasjiing, is 

 improperly there ; and he who cultivates it pursues an 

 illegitimate line of breeding. Few or none of our 

 farmers wash their sheep thus, on the ground that 

 buyers will make no adequate compensation for the 

 cleaner and lighter condition of the wool. 



In the hard water of the limestone regions, wool 

 washes much less cleanly. And I am informed by 

 experienced wool buyers that much more yolk appears 

 in the same wool and sheep in some regions than in 

 others. Ohio and Michigan fine wools are said to be 

 ten per cent, freer from yolk than New York wools, 

 and New York ten per cent, freer than Yermont 

 wools.* I know by my own experience that sheep 

 driven from the wheat soils of Onondaga county be- 

 come lighter colored in Cortland county. Taken back, 

 the same sheep again resume their dark color. 



There are some incidental and easily explainable 

 reasons for a part of this. On wheat lands, sheep are 

 put on stubbles and become dirtier. The heaviest 

 fleeced flocks of Yermont, from which high-priced 

 breeding sheep are sold, are sheltered in summer as 

 well as winter from rain, and thus all their natural 

 yolk is retained. 



There is another explanation of the difference in 

 this particular between Ohio, New York and Yermont 

 * I am not sure that this remark applies to all parts of Ohio. 



6* 



