1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



463 



SHEEP AND WOOIi. 

 BV HENRY S. RANDALL. 



You ask me to write for you on sheep. Perhaps 

 I may do so occasionally, if I find anything which 

 I think worth saying. There is a point in my re- 

 port to which I would wish to call general atten- 

 tion ; and, I trust, when you get the paper, you 

 will make the remark I there submit on the sub- 

 ject, the text of an earnest appeal to the sheep- 

 breeders of Oliio. I refer to Jilting up sheep for 

 sale, by special treatment, intended for that and 

 110 other object. This treatment consists in shear- 

 ing the sheep a month or two in advance of the 

 usual time ; sheltering them from rain storms, 

 throughout the entire year ; Jiousing them nights, 

 throughout the year, except during two and a half 

 or three of the warmest months, and pampering 

 them with high feed. 



All of these practices are beginning to be in- 

 dulged in extensively, by breeders proper, i. e., 

 those who look for their main profits from the an- 

 nual sale of rams and ewes for breeding, instead 

 of the annual sale of wool, and mere surj^lus 

 sheep. The object is obvious. A ram, exhibited 

 in the fall, with two months' extra wool on, 

 whollj' outshows one sheared at the common 

 time. If housed through the season from storms, 

 and from dew also, after say the middle of Au- 

 gust, he is a far darker colored sheep. If pam- 

 pered, he is larger, rounder, more compact in 

 build, and has the appearance of being shorter- 

 legged. Besides, the additional yolk, (''gum" and 

 "oil,") preserved ou and in the wool, by shelter- 

 ing, is a most important auxiliary to the weight of 

 those "brag" fleeces, which is to be proclaimed to 

 the world. Pampering, of itself, not only increases 

 the amount of yolk, but it increases the actual 

 amount of wool. A flock of ewes may be made 

 to yield a pound of wool more a head, by very 

 high keej) ; and on a large ram a difi'erence of two 

 or three pounds can be thus made. 



Mere early shearing, and summer sheltering, 

 are not fraudulent, if frankly avowed, (and avow- 

 ed to the purchaser, whether he thinks to make 

 inquiry or not,) but of what real use are they, un- 

 less they are expected to mislead somebody's 

 judgment, by making the sheep appear better than 

 they are ? If proclaimed with a trumpet, in the 

 ear of the inexperienced buyer, still, they would 

 not prevent his fancy from controlling his choice. 



They are expensive. The large flock-master 

 would find them nearly impracticalde. Should the 

 true breeder wish to get advantage of his neigh- 

 bor by any such means ? The common excuse 

 among breeders is that they must do it to keep 

 up with their neighbors. 



Waiving all imputations of fraud, would it not 

 be better and manlier for all breeders to stand on, 

 and start from the same ground, in their rivalry, 

 and that, the ground of nature and old usage ? 



Pampering stands in another and worse cate- 

 gory. This materially and permanently damages 

 the sheep. It impairs the constitution.' A sheep 

 ■which has been fed very highly with grain, in the 

 fall and winter, for one or two years, to fit it for 

 show, and to obtain a great fleece, is like a spent 

 hot-bed, so far as future production is concerned. 

 Even the natural weight of fleece will not again 

 be produced. It requii-es great skill to keep such 

 a sheep iu health, and the least casualty will prove 



fatal to it. It has lived too fast, and its vital en- 

 ergies are burnt out. 



Some credulous young beginner buys a ram, 

 and half-a-dozen ewes, which have been thus 

 treated. They have yielded monster fleeces, and 

 he pays a monster price for them. lie can scarcely 

 raise lambs from them. They often die within the 

 first or second year. If the seller did not apprise 

 the buyer, both of the facts and their consequen- 

 ces, what is he better morally than a swindler ? 

 Even the ethics of horsc-jockeyism would not tol- 

 erate the idea that an animal may, with propriety, 

 be secretly injured to fit it for sale. 



I understand that shee])-jockeying has made but 

 very small progress in Ohio. I sliould expect this. 

 Nature acted on too grand a scale, when she laid 

 out your noble State, to make such petty and 

 paltry trickeries necessary, or appropriate to your 

 people. But there is contagion in bad example, 

 and especially in the cunning practices and prep- 

 arations of rivals in breeding. 



But if the agricultural press Avill do its Avhole 

 duty fearlessly, in such matters ; if it will call 

 things by their right names, and denounce that as 

 unmanly which is unmanly, and that as infamous 

 which is infamous — the practices which I have de- 

 scribed will not extend beyond their present lim- 

 its, and will only be resorted to within those lim- 

 its by those who are Avilling to be stigmatized as 

 two-penny tricksters. 



Our agricultural societies ought to require every 

 exhibitor of sheep, at their fairs, to state explicitly 

 the day on which those sheep were previously 

 sheared, and M'hether they have been housed froq> 

 storms, or fed anything but grass between the 1st 

 of May and the 1st of December. 



One more point I will call your attention to, 

 which is barely alluded to, in my recent report. 

 We need better and more definite statistics ot 

 breeding flocks than we now obtain. If A. tells 

 me that he procures five pounds of washed wool 

 per head, from a flock of sheep containing so many 

 rams, ewes and wethers, he gives me a very in- 

 definite piece of information. If he gives their re- 

 spective ages, he vastly adds to the information ; 

 but it is still indefinite. To judge accurately of 

 the value and profitableness of his flock, for wool 

 production, I must know how much wool he ob- 

 tains from a given amount of feed. Am I told that, 

 as a general thing, it is not conveniently practica- 

 ble to obtain this information ? Well, it is at least 

 easy enough to find the comparative product to con- 

 sumption, as between difi'erent flocks. Speaking 

 in general, sheep unquestionably consume in pro- 

 portion to their weight. Those of the same breed 

 and habits consume in the same proportion. Thus, 

 the several varieties of the Merino, daily consume 

 about one-thirtieth of their weight of good hay, 

 in winter, and an equivalent of green feed in 

 summer. 



The flock, then, which produces most wool, in 

 proportion to weight of carcass, is, other things 

 being equal, most profitable. And between ex- 

 tremes of size, other things should be about equal, 

 in a sheep kept mainly for wool production, and 

 for the increase of its kind. Large size is not de- 

 sirable per se in such sheep. By an invariable law 

 of matter, small spheres, or spheroidal bodies, like 

 the carcass of a sheep, have more surface, in pro- 

 portion to weight and diameter, than larger ones. 

 For example, a round shot, two inches in diame- 



