390 



SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



Classified by age, except those 4 years old, ivhich are subdivided by sex. The 4-year old 

 ewes all had lambs, and 35 reared them. 



Classified by weight in divisions of 10 pounds each. 



These figures may be taken as a fair showing of the average wool- 

 growing flocks of New York in 1861. From several shearings in Cayuga 

 County, the same year, of ordinary Spanish Merino flocks there was an 

 average yield per head of 5J pounds of washed wool, and in Ontario 

 County an average yield of 5^- pounds, figures approximating very 

 closely to those above given. 



On June 1, 1864, at the Ontario County sheep-shearing 13 rams and 

 C ram lambs were shorn. The average weight of the old rams was 112 

 pounds each, the average weight of the fleeces 19-& pounds, an average 

 yield of fleece of 17 per cent to the weight of carcass. The 6 ram lambs 

 weighed in the aggregate 532 J pounds the heaviest 108 and the light- 

 est 69J pounds. Their fleeces aggregated 95-^ pounds the heaviest 

 16^1 pounds, the lightest 15^ 6 - pounds. The sheep were unwashed, and 

 most of them had been housed and carefully shielded from the weather. 



At a public gathering iu Cayuga County June 8, 1864, there were 

 shorn rams and ewes; the heaviest ram's fleece was 23-^- pounds, and 

 the heaviest ewe's fleece 10^ pounds, both fleeces unwashed. 



The manner of shearing the sheep, the various methods of washing, 

 the different ages of the fleeces, and other elements of uncertainty, and 



