FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 188 
to one excellent result. When it has become suf. 
ficiently general, it will drwe manufacturers to 
make juster discriminations than they now do be- 
tween moderately yolky and excessively yolky wools ; 
but the moment that desirable object is attained, 
the sheep which produced the change must go out of 
fashion. 
These wet looking sheep do not bear excessive cold 
as well as those having only a reasonable amount of 
yolk. Every flock master has found that they soonest 
“curl up” and shiver in the biting gale. Soap is not 
as warm as wool, and the congellation of this soap 
towards the outer extremity of the wool leaves open 
these surface cracks so as to let in wind and cold 
more than they are let in through drier fleeces. 
I have already given a criterion for deciding what 
kinds or qualities of yolk should certainly be regarded 
as improper. Our best breeders, however, go further, 
and decidedly object to much internal “gum,” 
whether it will wash out or not. They think the 
wool should open freely on the back and sides of the 
animal and without sticking together, except at the 
end, at any period of the year. They desire a liberal 
quantity of yolk in its most fluid form, and of conse- 
quence cannot object to a moderate degree of external 
“gum ;” but neither the excessively wet looking 
sheep I have mentioned, nor those which look as if 
they had a thick, continuous coating of tar and lamp- 
biack extending three-sixteenths of an inch into the 
wool, are in favor among the best breeders. 
Vauquelin assumed that the yolk left in sheared 
wool begins to injure it after a few months if not 
scoured out. I find by inquiry that the same opinion 
