APPENDIX G. 433 



APPENDIX Q. 



PEOPOETIONOPWOOLTO MEAT Ilf SHEEP OP DIPFERENT 

 A&ES, SEXES AND SIZES. 



The following was not reeeived until this work was nearly through 

 the press, and too late to refer to it except in this place: 



PoMPBT, Onon. Co., N. Y., Aug. 22, 1863. 



Hon. Henbt S. Rajtdail — Beaa- Sir: Agreeable to yoiu: request, I 

 herewith send you my investigations and observations upon the compar- 

 ative weight of wool and bodies of sheep. I hope they wiU be of benefit 

 to the sheep breeder, as well as the wool grower ; and that I shall have 

 the satisfaction of knowing that I have in part repaid to the world much 

 that I owe for the investigations of those who have gone before me. 

 With high hopes, but no higher ambition than to be called a "good 

 farmer," I remaia your obedient servant, 



Homer D. L. Swbbt. 



compaeatitb weight of wool altd bodies ov sheep. 



BY H. p. Ii. SWEET. 



The Hon. Eobert R. Livingston, the first President of the first Agri- 

 cultural Society of the State of New York, in his justly celebrated essay 

 on Fine-Wooled Sheep, uses the following language : 



"The inferiority in the size of the Merino to some other breeds, 

 which some make as an objection, is, in my opinioii, an important 

 advantage, not only in sheep but in every other stock not designed for 

 the draft ; because they will fatten in pastures in which larger cattle 

 would suffer from the fatigue they must undergo, in order to procure 

 the food that is necessary for their support. 



" This meaning applies more strongly to sheep than to any other 

 stock. They are generally kept upon Mgh and diy pastures, that are 

 frequently parched in summer, when fatigue is most irksome to them. 

 To which we may add that the fleece is not proportioned, as the food is 

 to the bulk of the auimal, but to his mrface, and a small sheep having 

 more surface in proportion to his bulk, must also have wool in the same 

 proportion; That is, a sheep whose live weight shall be 60 lbs., and 

 who, of course, will require but one-quarter of the food of a sheep that 

 weighs 340 lbs. wiU, notwithstanding, have Aa?/ as much wool (if the 

 fleeces are equally thick,) as his gigantic brother." * 



♦ Tranaactiona of the Society for the PromoUon ofUsefol Arts, Vol, H, p. f 

 19 



