THE AMERICAN MERINO 349 



is it important in the rams. A dry, white fleece is an inferior 

 wool, and rams with such fleeces are not usually the best 

 breeders. This grease, oil, or yolk may be scoured off, to show 

 a shrinkage in weight of 65 per cent. American Merino wool is 

 the finest produced, and the more folds on the body, and the 

 more crimped the fiber, the finer the staple. The one-year- 

 old fleece of a mature sheep will show a length of about two 

 and one-half inches. The temperament of the Merino is very 

 lively, yet not necessarily inconsistent with docility. 



The size of the American Merino naturally varies. Weights of 

 130 pounds or upward for the rams and about 100 pounds for 

 the ewes are acceptable to breeders. The finer specimens of 

 rams often weigh 150 to 200 pounds, but many excellent ewes 

 weigh less than 100 pounds. 



The American Merino as a wool producer is famous. No class 

 of sheep shears so strong, fine, and heavy a fleece. Many mature 

 females shear from 12 to 15 pounds and rams easily attain 20 

 pounds. The Vermont Meiino Register gives thirty-six rams, 

 three years old or over, whose fleeces averaged 3 1 pounds i ounce 

 each, one weighing 37 pounds 8 ounces. A two-year-old ram, at 

 the annual shearing of the Vermont Sheep Shearing Association, 

 sheared 44 pounds 3 ounces, the heaviest on record. Records 

 are given by the Vermont Register of fifty-four ewes, two years 

 old and over, which sheared 1064 pounds, 9 ounces, an average 

 of 19 pounds 1 1 ounces, the heaviest fleece weighing 25 pounds. 

 In 1887 forty-six ewes averaged 21 pounds 5 ounces. 



The relationship of weight of Merino fleece to body is regarded 

 as showing the true wool-producing capacity of the sheep. The 

 thirty-six rams above referred to sheared 25.2 per cent wool to 

 weight of carcass. Quoting from Vermont reports, in 18 12 the 

 best rams produced but about 6 per cent wool to weight of body. 

 In 1 844 the wool had increased to 1 5 per cent, from 1 844 to 1865 

 to 21 per cent, and from then to 1880 up to 36 per cent, show- 

 ing a remarkable improvement in wool production. In 1878 

 Vermont exhibited seventy-eight fleeces at the Paris Exposition, 

 which showed 22 per cent wool to live weight, thirty of the best 

 ones showing 25.2 per cent, the six best 30.1, and one up to 

 36.6 per cent. At a public shearing at Middlebury, Vermont, 



