196 MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP. 



States of the Norfolk sheep, that "in 1780, 420 lbs. of 

 clothing wool grown in Norfolk would produce 200 lbs. 

 prime — in 1828, it would produce only 14 lbs." These are 

 certainly convincing proofs of the effect of high keep. 



Dr. Parry, an English writer on sheep, and distinguished 

 as a patron of the Merino, says — " The fineness of a sheep's 

 fleece of a gi^-en breed is, within certain limits, inversely as 

 its fatness, and perhaps also as the quickness with which it 

 grows fat. A sheep which is fat has usually comparatively 

 coarse wool, and one which is lean, either from the want of 

 food or disease, has the finest wool ; and the very same 

 sheep may at different times, according to these circum- 

 stances, have fleeces of all the intermediate qualities from 

 extreme fineness to comparative coarseness."* 



The facts and deductions set forth in the foregoing ex- 

 tracts are applicable wherever sheep are kept, as may be 

 seen manifested in very many flocks which have been re- 

 moved from the old States, to the prairies of the West. A 

 large, and intelligent wool-growerf of Washington, Penn,, 

 who with others has kindly favored the writer with his 

 course of management, after alluding to the effect of climate 

 upon the fleece, says, " Much also, in my opinion, depends 

 on the soil ; high, poor lands will produce better wool than 

 rich low lands. I sent a flock a few years since to Warren 

 County, Illinois, of about our latitude, and after three years' 

 experience I scarcely knew my own wool ; the quantity of 

 fleece and size of the sheep have increased, but the wool 

 has not retained its fineness. This no doubt arises from 

 the pasturage ; they become very fat in summer, which in- 

 creases the harshness of the wool and destroys that delicate 

 texture it has in the more eastern and high lands." 



But the eflect of rich keep is not peculiar to the prairies ; 

 and therefore forms no objection to them for wool culture, 

 simply because there is a decidence in fineness, since the 

 carcase is enlarged and with it the quantity of wool, the fil- 

 ament or fibre made stronger, as, also, the fabric from which 



* Columella, whose sheep were cultivated principally for their fleece, 

 mentions the hungry lands about Parma and Modena, as feeding the most 

 valuable sheep ; and Virgil was perfectly aware of the influence of lux- 

 uriant pasture in giving coarseness to the fleece when he warns against 

 the '' pabula IcBta ;" 



" Nor in too rank a pasture let them live." 



t John H. Ewing, Esq. 



