136 FINE WOOL 6HEEP HUSBANDRY. 



object of no importance, but inasmuch as the attain- 

 ment of any real or fancied excellence -is generally 

 accompanied by some sacrifice in other quarters, it 

 causes him, so far as that sacrifice extends, to ex- 

 change substance for shadow. I have seen a pur- 

 chaser reject the obviously better animal because its 

 yolk was yellow, while that of the selected one was 

 white or colorless. 



Housing Sheep to Preserve Yolk in the Wool, 

 Early Shearing, Pampering, 



As already remarked, the flocks of Merinos in Yer- 

 inont and a few in New York from which high-priced 

 breeding sheep are sold, are sheltered not only from the 

 storms of winter, but from the rains of summer ; and 

 even in the pleasantest weather many of the flocks 

 do not lie out of doors nights more than about two 

 and a half months in the year. 



This is done to retain all the natural yolk in the 

 wool. Rain and even dew to some degree dissolve 

 and rinse it out. The object of retaining it is to pre- 

 serve that dark coating which is so much sought after, 

 and because it forms an important auxiliary in the 

 weight of those monster unwashed fleeces which is to 

 be proclaimed to the world.* 



* A class of settlers attain the first object, and to gome extent the 

 second, by a shorter and cheaper process. They color their sheep 

 with a preparation of burnt umber and oil, which forms a coating sr 

 closely resembling that of a highly yolky housed sheep, that it re- 

 quires considerable experience to detect the difference. This is termed 

 in Vermont "the Cornwall finish." No Vermont breeder of charac- 

 ter thus colors Ms sheep ; but many of the " Merinos" driven from 

 that State and hawked through the Middle and Western States for the 

 last twenty years, have been thus colored. 



