502 SHEEP 



the annual shearing of the Vermont Sheep Shearing Association, 

 sheared 44 pounds 3 ounces. Records are given by the Vermont 

 Register of fifty-four ewes, two years old and over, which sheared 

 1064 pounds 9 ounces (an average of 19 pounds 11 ounces), the 

 heaviest fleece weighing 25 pounds. In 1887 forty-six ewes 

 averaged 21 pounds 5 ounces. Gold Coin, perhaps the greatest 

 Merino sire in recent history, bred and owned by S. M. Cleaver 

 of Ohio, has produced three fleeces averaging about 36 pounds 

 each for one year's growth, and one ewe in the Cleaver flock 

 produced a fleece weighing 27 pounds 4 ounces. J. D. Irwin of 

 Ohio is credited with producing a fleece which weighed 50 pounds, 

 which is the heaviest of which the author has record. 



The relationship of weight of Merino fleece to body is regarded 

 as showing the true wool-producing capacity of the sheep. The 

 thirty-six rams above referred to sheared 25.2 per cent wool to 

 weight of carcass. Quoting from Vermont reports, in 1812 the 

 best rams produced but about 6 per cent wool to weight of body. 

 In 1844 the wool had increased to 15 per cent, from 1844 to 

 1865 to 21 per cent, and from then to 1880 up to 36 per cent, 

 showing a remarkable improvement in wool production. In 1878 

 Vermont exhibited seventy-eight fleeces at the Paris Exposition, 

 which showed 22 per cent wool to live weight, thirty of the best 

 ones showing 25.2 per cent, the best six 30.1, and one up to 

 36.6 per cent. At a public shearing at Middlebury, Vermont, in 

 1882, fifty-four rams and ewes averaged 23.3 per cent unwashed 

 wool to live weight. 



The fineness of Merino fiber has doubtless improved since the 

 introduction of this sheep to America. A set of measurements 

 of twenty-four sheep given by Dr. Cutting showed an average 

 diameter of fiber for rams and ewes of ^^9-9 inch, the rams aver- 

 aging y-Q^-g- and the ewes yg 1 ^, the finest ewe fiber being y^-j- 

 inch. Professor Hawkesworth gives interesting diameter measure- 

 ments of Australian Merino wools, 1 of which the following are 

 from noted breeding animals : Bismark, T -^ fT inch ; Royal Simon, 

 TtW i nc k ' Young Golden Horn, y^Tg- inch ; Jubilee II, -j^g- 

 inch; Magic ("a pure Vermont") y^y-g- mcn 5 Daisy (a champion 

 Vermont ewe, bred in Australia, " showing a beautiful crimpy 



1 Alfred Hawkesworth, Australian Sheep and Wool, Sydney, 1906. 



