186 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 
object of no importance, but inasmuch as the attain- 
ment of any real or fancied excellence is generally 
accompanied by some sacrifice in other quarters, it 
causes him, so far as that sacrifice extends, to ex- 
change substance for shadow. I have seen a pur- 
chaser reject the obviously better animal because its 
yolk was yellow, while that of the selected one was 
white or colorless. 
Housing Sheep to Preserve Yolk in the Wool. 
Early Shearing. Pampering. 
As already remarked, the flocks of Merinos in Ver- 
mont and a fewin New York from which high-priced 
breeding sheep are sold, are sheltered not only from the 
storms of winter, but from the rains of summer; and 
even in the pleasantest weather many of the flocks 
do not lie out of doors nights more than about two 
and a half months in the year. 
This is done to retain all the natural yolk in the 
wool. Rain and even dew to some degree dissolve 
and rinse it out. The object of retaining it is to pre- 
serve that dark coating which is so much sought after, 
and because it forms an important auxiliary in the 
weight of those monster unwashed fleeces which is to 
be proclaimed to the world.* 
* A class of settlers attain the first object, and to some extent the 
second, by a shorter and cheaper process. They color their sheep 
with a preparation of burnt umber and oil, which forms a coating so 
closely resembling that of a highly yolky housed sheep, that it re- 
quires considerable experience to detect the difference. This is termed 
in Vermont ‘the Cornwall finish.” No Vermont breeder of charac- 
ter thus colors his sheep; but many of the ‘Merinos” driven from 
that State and hawked through the Middle and Western States for the 
last twenty years, have been thus colored, 
