FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 123 
Folds. The Spanish, French, and German breeders 
approved of folds in the skin, considering them indi- 
cations of a heavy fleece. The French have bred 
them over the entire bodies of many of their sheep. 
J have seen two hours and a half expended by an 
active and skilful shearer, in my barn, in getting the 
fleece decently off a ram of this stamp. This might 
do better in a different climate, and in countries 
where labor costs nothing; but the additional quan- 
tity of wool will not pay for itin this.* Desides, it 
is unsightly, because excessively unnatural. A deep, 
soft, plaited dewlap on both sexes, and some slight 
corrugation on the neck of the ram, were all our 
older breeders of the Merino desired in this way. 
The fashion has extended to heavy neck folds, partien- 
larly on the ram, a short fold or two back of the 
elbow, and some small ones round and on the roots 
of the tail and on the breech—the latter running in 
* T mean additional quantity caused by the folds of the skin, for as 
a mere “ sign” of a thick fleece they amount to nothing. The cost of 
additional labor is not the sole consideration. Itis frequently a diffi- 
cult thing to find time to shear a large flock of sheep between the 
rain storms from 15th of June to 10th of July. The farmer is often 
compelled to house his flocks for twenty-four hours m succession, to 
keep them dry for the shearers; and besides getting miserably dirty 
with gieen dung, they become so hollow and lank (for they will 
searcely touch dry hay), and their skins so flabby, that it almost 
doubles the difficulty of shearing them. And this is zery injurious 
treatment to ewes having young lambs. Prime sheareis are scarce. 
What then would he do, who had 300 or 500 such sheep as I have 
named in the text, to get sheared! Suppose he obtained five or even 
ten pounds more wool from 100 sheep, would it not be vastly more 
economical to go to the expense of keeping one or two additional 
sheep to obtain it? There is no sensible point of view in which this ex- 
cessive folding or wrinkling of the skin over the whole body is not an 
unmitigated nussance ! 
