628 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



brisket, 10 inches. Fore legs, apart, inside, should be 3 inches. Width through the 

 shoulders, 11 inches; width through the thighs, 11 inches; width from hip to hip, 

 11 inches. 



These measurements taken wi th wool on, and wool IJ inches in length, with a body 

 having the appearance of a straight line nnderside from foreleg to flank, with the 

 folds and covering so often described, will give you a model American Merino of 130 

 pounds weight. A good wrinkle or two running across ihe nose, about 2 inches from 

 the end, and those wrinkles running along thelowerpart of jaw, called cheekpieces, 

 well wooled over, with solid blocky cap of wool an inch or two below the eyes and 

 not too close to the same, but running out on the ear an inch or so, with a wide, 

 thick ear, will finish up the head in good shape. The neck folds should be heavy, 

 especially after leaving the head, as they come nearer the shoulder, and if they 

 extend around the neck unbroken it is better than broken ones. It is not necessary 

 to have many folds on the body, especially on tlie back and sides, but two back of 

 the forelegs and two front of the hind legs, with good flank and folds extending up 

 thigh to the setting on of the tail are almost indispensable, as well as those underside, 

 especially one running lengthwise underside from udder to center of body, or, better, 

 to the folds on either side of the brisket. You seldom meet with a sheep having this 

 fold which will not shear off a good belly fleece. Then with a fold or two running 

 around the tail, or on each side of it, you have the body finished oif. 



The depression in the wool market after the tariff revision of 1883 was 

 felt in Michigan, but not so severely as in some other States, and the 

 enthusiastic breeders of that State did not as a general thing sit down 

 and repine and sacriflce their Merino flocks, but they cidled and im- 

 proved them, and some who were favorably situated increased them. 

 There was, on the whole, a reduction in the flne-wooled flocks which was 

 nearly compensated for in the increase of English breeds of sheep. The 

 immediate effect of the depression was to open the eyes of the breeder 

 to the kind of sheep he had been raising, and to set him to thinking 

 how he could improve his Merinos to meet a more general demand than 

 that for the wool alone. His conclusion was generally to the effect that 

 whatwas wanted was a larger, plainer sheep than he had been raising; 

 ewes weighing from 100 to 120 pounds, and rams from 150 to 180 pounds, 

 carrying less oil and wrinkle. Up to 1876 the bulk of the Merino trade 

 was within the State, and all bred the style of sheep then in demand, 

 a sheep of medium size, weighing from 100 to 125 pounds, heavily folded 

 from the tip of the nose to the end of the hoof, the main thing to be 

 desired in the fleece being the amount of oil. The best sheep of those 

 days were so heavily wrinkled that it was almost impossible for a ewe 

 to nurse her lamb, or, as expressed by Mr. A. A. Wood, " for a ram to 

 do service without the aid of two men and a platform." These heavily 

 folded, short-legged, greas)-, heavy-shearing sheep found favor with the 

 best breeders, and were immediately the most successful prize winners 

 at the fairs. At the annual meeting of the Michigan SI leep- Breeders' 

 and Wool-Growers' Association, held at Lansing in 1886, Mr. A. A. 

 Wood said substantially that while none could deny that these wrinkly, 

 greasy sheop had done a vast amount of good to the floclcs of Michigan, 

 and when the people wanted them the breeders were all glad to furnish 

 them, the question then presented itself whether they had not gone far 

 enough in that direction. 



