EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVEK. 315 



those of Texas, Colorado. Kansas, and New Mexico, they will find the great improve- 

 ments there effected in all of the qualities which make the fleeces valuable to the 

 manufacturer, will be quite sufficient to convince them that we have no reasonable 

 grounds to fear we are breeding too much oil in the fleeces of our pure-bred flocks of 

 Merino sheep, in which the stock rams to improve those of the larger wool-growing 

 flocks must be produced. 



As to the wrinkles or folds, their development over the whole car- 

 cass is encouraged, as they are indicative of heavy fleeces. But some 

 breeders carry them to excess. It is a fact that the heavy fleeces are 

 the product of wrinkly sheep. But within the last year there has been 

 a change. The folds are thicker, but not quite as large, with less coarse 

 wool on them, the coarse hair on the wrinkles and thighs in the best 

 bred flocks having measurably disappeared. The prevailing fashion is 

 to have from " three to five heavy folds on the neck, not large on the 

 upper side, but large on the under side; two or three short folds on and 

 immediately back of each elbow or arm; fine, thick wrinkles running 

 down the sides, but not extending over the back. Wrinkles across the 

 hips, some times from the tail in the direction of the stifle, and some 

 times at right angles with them, fold also around the tail to give it a 

 wide appearance, and also folds across the thigh with a deep flank. 

 These folds, except on the neck, unless too large, do not show when a 

 year's growth of wool is on the sheep. These folds are what please the 

 eye of a breeder of taste." The gentleman from whom we quote — an 

 accomplished breeder — asserted his firm belief that " any breeder who 

 attempts to breed from a ram without wrinkles and a certain amount of 

 oil will fail to realize any improvement in the wool-producing capacity 

 of his flock." 



The pedigree committee of the Vermont Merino Sheep-Breeders' 

 Association in the first volume of the Register, say : 



If we admit that our best flocks of Merinos have oil and wrinkles in excess of the 

 wants of the practical wool grower for his wool-bparing sheep as a class, we con- 

 tend that we are not breeding altogether with a view of wool-growing in Vermont, 

 but our most profitable product is blood that will produce improvements in the 

 wool-bearing capacities of flocks in localities where it is hard to keep them up to 

 the most profitable standard. Hence it is for our best interest, as it is for theirs, 

 that we shall be able to furnish them with sheep having these qualities in a very 

 marked degree, and greatly in excess of what may, perhaps, be their ideal. 



The same committee in the third volume of the Vermont Register 

 (1887) held the same view and reported : 



In regard to the amount of oil and of folds or wrinkles that breeders are so gen- 

 erally advised to discard, the committee believe that the natural amount ef these 

 peculiar to the Merino breed of sheep can not be dispensed with without a tendency 

 to a thinner, lighter fleece, with a staple of less strength and health, and ultimately 

 less profitable to both the producer and manufacturer. 



It is the general testimony of Vermont breeders that the increased 

 weight of the Merino fleeces is due largely to the increased thickness 

 of the fleece, or in other words, to the greater number of fibers on the 

 same surface of pelt. There are no records of the actual thickness of 



