BREEDING OF SHEEP. 71 



prove ; the fleeces of the lambs, will in such case, be 

 in proportion to those of their sires. 



Q. What proofs are there of this increase in the 

 quantity of wool ? 



A. The following experiments were made in a 

 canton, where the pastures are poor ; and the weth- 

 ers and rams afforded fleeces weighing only a pound, 

 or a pound and a quarter, and those of the ewes only 

 three quarters of a pound of wool, washed on the 

 sheep's back before shearing. These ewes were put 

 to rams, which produced about three pounds of wool ; 

 their lambs the second year had from two pounds to 

 two pounds and an half of wool. 



A ram from Flanders, whose fleece weighed five 

 pounds ten ounces, having been put to a ewe from the 

 department of the eastern Pyrenees, which had on- 

 ly two pounds, two ounces of wool, produced a male 

 lamb, which in the third year had five pounds four 

 ounces and six drachms of wool : this ram had been 

 well fed ; for it cannot be expected, that sheep can 

 have heavy fleeces with poor pasture, and little fodder. 



Q. Can ewes, having hairy wool (jarreuse) be made 

 to produce lambs, which have no jarre.* 



A. If a ewe in a middling degree hairy (jarreuse) 

 be coupled with a ram having no Jarre, their lambs 

 will have no Jarre : if the ewes have a great deal of 

 jarre, the lambs will also have some of it, but less in 



* The French use the word jarre to designate a coarse hairy wool, 

 which has the singular property of not receiving 1 the dye when manufac- 

 tured : it is considered the worst wool in France, and is used only m 

 the coarsest manufactures. 



