FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 133 



to one excellent result. When it has become suf. 

 ficiently general, it will drive manufacturers to 

 make juster discriminations than they now do be- 

 tween moderately yolky and excessively yolky wools ; 

 but the moment that desirable object is attained, 

 the sheep which produced the change must go out of 

 fashion. 



These wet looking sheep do not bear excessive cold 

 as well as those having only a reasonable amount of 

 yolk. Every flock master has found that they soonest 

 " curl up" and shiver in the biting gale. Soap is not 

 as warm as wool, and the congellation of this soap 

 towards the outer extremity of the wool leaves open 

 these surface cracks so as to let in wind and cold 

 more than they are let in through drier fleeces. 



I have already given a criterion for deciding what 

 kinds or qualities of yolk should certainly be regarded 

 . as improper. Our best breeders, however, go further, 

 and decidedly object to much internal "gum," 

 whether it will wash out or not. They think the 

 wool should open freely on the back and sides of the 

 animal and without sticking together, except at the 

 end, at any period of the year. They desire a liberal 

 quantity of yolk in its most fluid form, and of conse- 

 quence cannot object to a moderate degree of external 

 "gum;" but neither the excessively wet looking 

 sheep I have mentioned, nor those which look as if 

 they had a thick, continuous coating of tar and lamp- 

 black extending three-sixteenths of aji inch into the 

 wool, are in favor among the best breeders. 



Yauquelin assumed that the yolk left in sheared 

 wool begins to injure it after a few months if not 

 scoured out. I find by inquiry that the same opinion 



