SECRETARY'S REPORT. 165 



Mr. Smith. — I believe wheat will make the most wool, but, of 

 course, we don't want to feed wheat. If I was going to feed to 

 make the greatest amount of wool, I should feed oats ; and you 

 want a certain amount of lime to make a good growth of wool. 



Prof. Agassiz. — Has the fineness of the wool been measured 

 microscopically, with the micrometer, so that you can ascertain 

 the fineness or thickness of a single thread of wool, and what is 

 the pf oduction to the inch ? 



Mr.- Smith. — Yes, sir. The number of hairs of wool on a 

 square inch has been determined, on different sheep, a great 

 many times. I cannot give the figures now ; my memory does 

 not serve me well. The production of our sheep has been 

 compared with that of European, and I believe it has been 

 determined that we have sheep in this country that produce 

 a larger number of hairs to the square inch than any that have 

 ever been found in Europe. 



Mr. Huntington. — I would like to inquire if the pods of 

 beans and peas are not good for sheep. I believe they are very 

 fond of them. 



Mr. Smith. — Yes, sir ; and they are very good. The best 

 sheep-growers in Vermont take up their ewes in October, and 

 begin to feed them oats when they put the buck with them, and 

 continue this right through until they lamb. That helps them 

 to get a strong progeny. 



I would like to make one remark in connection with what 

 Prof. Agassiz said this morning with regard to the food of cattle. 

 I have tried some experiments in supplying the deficiency of 

 lime. I found that some of my cows, every season, after the 

 middle of summer, began to chew bones, if they could get them ; 

 and I noticed this fact, that the cattle that did that, didn't seem 

 to be very well ; they seemed to be running down. In reading, 

 I found what the trouble was. A great proportion of milk is 

 phosphate of lime, and in making that every day, they need the 

 food that gives it. They do not get it from our soil, because it 

 is not there. I noticed tliis fact, also, that oxen never did this. 

 I presume nobody ever saw a healthy ox chewing a bone ; it is 

 most generally cows that are in milk. Well, I went to feeding 

 bone meal. I always keep a barrel of bone meal, just as regu- 

 larly as I do my salt, and I feed it with my salt. I put in about 

 the same quantity of bone meal that I do of salt. In winter, 



