WOOL STUDIES 315 



when the sheep were washed, those shorn April 12 produced 10.33 

 pounds, while those shorn June 1 produced 9.89 pounds of wool. 

 When the sheep were not washed, those shorn April 12 produced 

 11.82 pounds, while those shorn June 1 produced 12.53 pounds of 

 wool. When the sheep were washed there was an average differ- 

 ence of 0.44 pound of grease wool in favor of the sheep shorn April 

 12, but when the sheep were not washed there was an average differ- 

 ence of 0.71 pound of grease wool in favor of the sheep shorn June 1. 

 The data presented in Table IV, page 319, help to explain these 

 differences in yield of grease wool. Table IV shows that when the 

 sheep were washed, the grease wool from those shorn April 12 

 yielded 40.63 percent, while the grease wool from those shorn June 1 

 yielded 38.65 percent of scoured wool, or a yield of 1.98 percent more 

 scoured wool from the grease wool produced by the sheep shorn 

 April 12. When the sheep were not washed, the grease wool from 

 those shorn April 12 yielded 36.56 percent, while the grease' wool 

 from those shorn June 1 yielded 32.96 percent of scoured wool, or 

 a yield of 3.6 percent more scoured wool from the grease wool pro- 

 duced by the sheep shorn April 12. The fact that the washed sheep 

 shorn June 1 produced slightly less grease wool per head than did 

 those shorn April 12, while the unwashed sheep shorn June 1 pro- 

 duced more grease wool per head than did those shorn April 12, with 

 no corresponding increase, but rather with an actual decrease, in the 

 amount of scoured wool, indicates that between the dates mentioned 

 there was an increase in the proportion of matter other than wool 

 fiber in the fleeces. The fact that the difference in favor of early 

 shorn wool with respect to the yield of scoured wool was almost 

 twice as great in case of the unwasheol as in case of the washed wool, 

 indicates that this additional amount of foreign matter was partly, 

 but not entirely, removed when the sheep were washed. Since any 

 increase in the proportion of foreign matter from outside sources 

 was improbable at that time of the year, it seems fair to assume 

 that this increase was due to an increased secretion of yolk or other 

 substances from the skin of the sheep. . The late washed sheep were 

 carefully "tagged" or "breeched out" before they were turned to 

 grass in the spring so that the increase in the amount of foreign 

 material in the wool was not due to an accumulation of manure 

 around the breech, which frequently forms when sheep are not 

 shorn until late in the spring. Facilities were not at hand to deter- 

 mine the character of the material removed from each lot of wool 

 when scoured to see if the wool shorn June 1 actually contained 

 more of the products of the sebaceous and sweat glands than did 



