604 



SHEEP 



The Cheviot as a wool producer is only fair. The fleeces lack 

 weight, although they have very satisfactory quality, the wool bring- 

 ing a price equal to any of the medium class. Twenty-five Cheviot 

 breeders give the average weights of fleeces in their flocks as 

 ranging from 7| to 1 1 pounds per fleece for rams and 6 to 9 

 pounds for ewes. Wallace states that a good average clip for 

 ewes is 4*- to 5 pounds of washed wool. The author has received 

 from Scotland records of individual weights of a considerable 

 number of fleeces in prominent flocks, the heaviest being 8 pounds 



FIG. 285. A Cheviot ewe, champion at the 1918 Ohio State Fair. Owned by 

 R. D. Grieve, Xenia, Ohio. From photograph by the author 



for a stud ram, with many ranging from 5 to 6 pounds. Formerly 

 Cheviot fleeces appeared somewhat open and long, and the breed 

 has ignorantly been referred to by some as a long wool, whereas 

 it is a true middle wool of three-eighths combing grade. In 

 American flocks the fleece is being bred to be more compact and 

 heavier, with a length averaging as near four inches as possible. 

 Cheviot wool is valued by buyers, and in scouring tests at the 

 Michigan Experiment Station the wool of this breed shrunk less 

 than that of any other. 



High prices for Cheviot sheep have been paid in Scotland. 

 Each year at Hawick annual ram sales are held on a large scale, 



