FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 137 



The sheep which are to be sold are usually sheared 

 about the first of May, and some of them earlier. 



If a number of sheep were selected from the same 

 flock so closely resembling each other, that if divided 

 into two parcels one could scarcely choose between 

 them, and then if one of these parcels were treated as 

 above described, and the other in the ordinary way ; 

 that is to say, if the latter were wholly unhoused 

 except in winter, and not sheared until near the first 

 of July, no inexperienced person who should examine 

 the two parcels in the ensuing fall or winter, could be 

 made to believe they were sheep of the same quality. 

 Explain to him fully the difference in their treatment, 

 and still the effect produced upon his eyes would so 

 far control his judgment that he would pay twice as 

 much for the housed and early sheared sheep. 



The leading breeders of Yermont are guilty of no 

 deception in these particulars, for they frankly avow 

 their treatment and their motives for it. And they 

 might ask if it is not as legitimate to put a sheep as a 

 horse or any other piece of property in its best form 

 for sale. 



But it is undeniable that the practices named lead 

 to many disappointments. The buyer never finds hif 

 sheep looking so dark-colored again, and he is aston- 

 ished sometimes to find that after he has sheared them 

 once, these supposed prodigies are no " woolier" than 

 sheep he owned before. Besides, the sheep which has 

 been carefully housed from storms all its life does not 

 always do so well when exposed to them. 



It costs no trifling sum to house sheep in the sum- 

 mer. On a large establishment, and with flocks 

 scattered in distant fields, the expense and trouble 



