EAST OP THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 



311 



are becoming convinced that the forcing system to attain large size 

 and heavy fleeces the first year is neither desirable nor profitable, and 

 the gains in the mature sheep show that slower development tends to 

 much better and larger improvements in the end." 



A table of averages by classes for 1882 and 1885, showing the gains 

 or improvements in three years in all the classes except yearling rams, 

 is here given : 



Mr. Chapman, who presents this table in the third volume of the 

 Kegister of the Vermont Merino Sheep Breeders' Association, remarks 

 that the falling off in weight of fleece and highest average should not 

 be attributed to any lack of real excellence in the young rams shorn in 

 1885, nor should it be judged from this result that those shorn would 

 not ultimately shear as heavy or even heavier fleeces than those shorn 

 the first year, but the cause must be found in the fact that too many 

 valuable young rams have been lost, or improvement stopped in them 

 individually by excessive forcing for a heavy fleece at 1 year old; a 

 practice, however, which is now less fashionable among our breeders 

 than it was a few years ago. 



But heavy fleeces do not always indicate a large product of wool such 

 as is used at the card, the percentage of cleansed wool being sometimes 

 ridiculously small and the shrinkage very great. The results of cleans- 

 ing some Vermont and Michigan wools are shown in the following table, 

 prepared for the Vermont Eegister. They were cleansed between 1882 

 and 1887, and the numbers attached to the sires refer to the number as 

 given to the stock rams in that Eegister: 



