582 BULLETIN No. 129. [November, 



During these months the difference in price between shorn and un- 

 shorn lambs varies from $.75 to $1.25 per hundred weight in favor 

 of the unshorn lambs. The amount of difference depends on the 

 condition of the wool market and the time in the season when the 

 lambs are slaughtered. The difference usually becomes less as the 

 hot weather approaches, because it is claimed the carcasses of un- 

 shorn lambs deteriorate in quality on account of the discomfort the 

 lambs suffer in hot weather from being left in their fleeces. Let it 

 be remembered that the discrimination in favor of the heavier pelt 

 holds only in cases where shorn and unshorn sheep or lambs are 

 compared. Of two lambs in the wool, the one with the lighter pelt 

 is always preferred provided they are otherwise equal. The ques- 

 tion is often asked why sheep or lambs with heavy pelts are dis- 

 criminated against when they carry a greater weight of wool than 

 those with light pelts. This question arises naturally because wool 

 is worth a great deal more per pound than mutton and it would 

 seem that lambs with heavy fleeces should be credited with the 

 greater amount of wool they produce. In a large packing plant 

 the slaughtering department usually delivers pelts haying wool at 

 about the same stage of growth to the wool pullery department at 

 a uniform price. Hence the department buying the lambs does not 

 discriminate in favor of those having heavy fleeces. If the buyer 

 for the packer were required to base his bids upon the wool as well 

 as the mutton yields, his task would be greatly complicated because 

 in estimating the yield of wool he would be obliged to determine 

 how much of the pelt is wool and how much of it is skin. Hence 

 the packer instructs the buyer to be governed chiefly by the per- 

 centage of marketable meat the lamb will yield and not by the 

 combined product of mutton and wool. 



The weight of pelt may be appreciably influenced by the con- 

 dition of the wool, with reference to foreign material and mois- 

 ture in it. Should lambs be very wet, buyers may refuse to bid on 

 them until they become more nearly dry, and if bids are made on 

 offerings whose wool contains an unusual percentage of moisture, 

 the buyer attempts to allow for it by the price he offers. Foreign 

 material such as mud, sand, or dung, may be lodged in the wool, 

 and the buyer protects himself from loss upon such offerings by 

 bidding less per pound for them than if they were clean. Such bids 

 usually work against the owner, and hence it pays to market lambs 

 in clean condition. Occasionally the general quality of lambs may; 

 be developed to such a marked degree that they will sell as prime 

 even though they be somewhat deficient in form. - A notable ex- 

 ample is the fat Mexican lamb. From the standpoint of form the 

 Mexicans are not especially attractive, since they are upstanding 



