CHARACTERISTICS OF WOOL 9! 



far as they are the outcome of deficient management, it is 

 almost needless to say that correct management will in 

 time lessen the tendency to such defects, if it does not 

 entirely remove it. 



Influences from environment that are harmful The 

 influences from environment that are harmful in wool are 

 various. They are such as relate to soils which tend to 

 color the wool, to imperfect protection, as the roofs of 

 sheds that leak, and the adherence of foreign substances 

 to the wool, such as burs, spines and chaff. The hurtful- 

 ness from soils it is not possible to remedy in some in- 

 stances. Those from leaking roofs may easily be pre- 

 vented by simply stopping the leaks. Those from for- 

 eign substances are taken into the wool while the sheep 

 are grazing or taking fodder in winter, and are therefore 

 preventable. 



Burs are of various kinds, as the burdock, the cockle- 

 bur, the beggar tick and the sand bur. When these are 

 allowed to grow in the pastures, the sheep when grazing 

 come in touch with them and they become entangled in 

 the wool, to the extent in some instances of covering the 

 whole fleece. Especially is this true of the burdock. The 

 remedy is to prevent these from maturing their seeds ; 

 that is, from forming mature burs in which the seed is 

 inclosed. For the best methods of doing this, the reader 

 is referred to "Weeds and How to Eradicate Them," by 

 the author. 



Needle grass is peculiar to range pastures, especially 

 to those ranges that lie west from the Rocky mountains. 

 At one time it infested nearly all the land in the West 

 known as prairie land. This grass grows up tall amid the 

 prairie grasses early in the season and matures spines, 

 which in shape somewhat resemble needles. When the 

 sheep graze among them as they approach maturity in 

 June or July, they fall into the wool, and through motion 

 in the same while the sheep are walking, they work down 

 into the flesh. Lambs are the greater sufferers from their 



