THE CULTURE OF WOOL. 259 



is now not so much laid on the cart-ass just under the skin as 

 it used to be, when the four-year-old wether was the prime 

 market sheep. Now it goes to market at half the age, and 

 really before it is fully grown. This naturally changes the 

 old style of mutton sheep which had two inches of fat on the 

 outside of the carcass. As the animal was then fully grown 

 and was not making flesh, the fat could only be disposed of 

 in this way. But the scarcely maturely grown wether of the 

 present fashion is made up of quickly grown flesh, in which 

 the fat is intimately intermingled all through. And this is 

 made by the same process of feeding from the birth of the 

 lamb as was formerly applied to the full grown animal only. 

 So that it cannot be otherwise than that the fat in the ani- 

 mals is evenly distributed all through the young flesh, weigh- 

 ing half as much as the former aged one. 



The result of such generous feeding from birth cannot 

 be doubted. The body is fully supplied, and there is a sur- 

 plus cf nutriment which goes where? Necessarily to the 

 fleece. And thus, whether the English feeder of sheep in- 

 tends it or not, he is a wool grower quite as much as the 

 shepherds in Argentina or Australia or Africa who shear 

 their sheep as long as there is wool enough to pay, and then 

 boil down the carcass of the old sheep for the tallow. 



And just as wrong feeding tends to disease of the sheep, 

 so it is productive of disease in the fleece. Why it should 

 not be put in this plain and simple way there is no reason, 

 for if the animal may be diseased in any part of it, in the 

 skin even, why not attach this same distinction to the wool? 

 It puts the matter in a more forcible position to the wool 

 grow r er possibl3 T , and will give him a better idea of the im- 

 perative necessity for avoiding all errors of management 

 by which the wool is injured. And the first of these is in- 

 sufficient feeding; the next is undue exposure to sudden 

 changes of weather. It is not so much the kind of weather 

 the sheep are exposed to as frequent and serious changes, 

 without anj 7 reasonable shelter. The sheep is easily suited 

 in every way, but while it may be thought its fleece is a 

 protection against changes, it is quite otherwise in fact. 

 It is a protection against cold, if this is continued, but sudden 

 changes from warm to severely cold weather are as seri- 

 ously felt as if the sheep had only its bare skin. It is so in 



