390 



SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



Classified iy age, except those i years old, which are subdivided l>y sex. The 4-year old 

 ewes all had lanibs, and 35 reared them. 



Classified iy weight in divisions of 10 pounds each. 



These figures may be taken as a fair sho-wing of the average -wool- 

 growing flocks of New York in 1861. Prom several shearings in Cayuga 

 County, the same year, of ordinary Spanish Merino flocks there was an 

 average yield per head of 5J pounds of washed wool, and in Ontario 

 County an average yield of 5^^ pounds, figures approximating very 

 closely to those above given. 



On June 1, 1864, at the Ontario County sheep-shearing 13 rams and 

 C ram lambs were shorn. The average weight of the old rams was 112 

 pounds each, the average weight of the fleeces 19-i\ pounds, an average 

 yield of fleece of 17 per cent to the weight of carcass. The 6 ram lambs 

 weighed in the aggregate 532 J pounds— the heaviest 108 and the light- 

 est 69J pounds. Their fleeces aggregated 95,6^ pounds— the heaviest 

 16if pounds, the lightest 15-f-g pounds. The sheep were unwashed, and 

 most of them had been housed and carefully shielded from the weather. 



At a public gathering in Cayuga County June 8, 1864, there were 

 shorn rams and ewes; the heaviest ram's fleece was 23,^- pounds, and 

 the heaviest ewe's fleece IOt^; pounds, both fleeces unwashed. 



The manner of shearing the sheep, the various methods of washing, 

 the different ages of the fleeces, and other elements of uncertainty, and 



