1889 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
675 
company it and form an indispensable part 
of the fleece; for these fatty and soapy sub¬ 
stances are necessary to the preservation 
of the fleece and give to it its ability to pro¬ 
tect the animal from the inclemencies of 
the weather, for which purpose it is given 
by nature to the sheep. An exceedingly 
heavy draft is thus made upon the vitality 
and the vital functions of the sheep for the 
supply of the material for the growth of 
the wool; and this draft is so heavy and ex¬ 
acting upon the vitality and energy of the 
animal, that it has been found to interfere 
largely with the ability of a ram to serve 
the ewes successfully when the flock has 
been sheared in the breeding season. This 
fact is well know to shepherds who thus 
shear their sheep, and my owu personal ex¬ 
perience of fall shearing three years ago 
has given full confirmation to the general 
knowledge, for of a flock of 80 ewes sheared 
in September just as the breeding season 
began, more than half were barren in the 
spring and of the rest of them many had 
lambs so weak that most of them died. 
This result may have been due to the un¬ 
usually cold, wet season, but if so, it proves 
that the shearing and its effect upon the 
vitality of the sheep, heavily drawn upon 
to renew the growth of wool, were too 
much tax to enable the flock to withstand 
the rigor of the season, which otherwise 
would have caused no special inconven¬ 
ience. 
All this being thus, it follows that if the 
shepherd must feed for flesh and healthful 
growth, or for fat to make his sheep fit for 
market, he must quite as much feed for 
wool, or he will lose the chief profit from 
the flock. 
The long, lustrous wool of the English 
breeds which have been bred and reared 
for this special product, is an emphatic in¬ 
stance of the results of “ feeding for wool”. 
These sheep are more highly fed than any 
others in the world. Turnips, mangels, 
oil-cakes, corn, certain mixtures of meals 
and condiments which are known as “ spec¬ 
ial foods,” with rich grass, clover, mustard, 
rape, and other pasture crops are all pro¬ 
vided for them, and a fleece of surpassing 
length, strength, luster and fineness of 
staple is thus produced. And again it will 
occur to the experienced shepherd that when 
sheep are suddenly deprived of sufficient 
food, or an excessive drain is made upon 
their vitality by any hardships or neglect, 
the wool will stop growing or become so 
weak and thin that the fiber will be pinched 
and shrunken, and the wool will break under 
t he card and so become useless for the pur¬ 
poses of the manufacturer of woolen goods. 
Under amicroscope which shows so distinct¬ 
ly every portion of a fiber of wool, one may 
see the evidences of good feeding in the full¬ 
ness of the strand, its even imbrication, its 
regular thickness and bright , smooth surface 
while the effects of irregular and poor feed¬ 
ing are shown in the visible “breaks,” 
the pinched and shrunken places in the 
liber, the uneven surface, and its “dead- 
ness,” all of which impair the strength and 
lessen the adherence of the felting quality 
of the wool, which is necessary to fit it for 
manufacture. That wool is not always 
wool, is proved by the carefulness with 
which it is examined and separated and 
classed by the professional wool-sorters, 
under whose skillful scrutiny the fleeces 
must pass before they are submitted to any 
process of manufacture. And this work of 
sorting is to a very great extent simply the 
separation of the wool of ill-fed sheep from 
that of those which have been well nour¬ 
ished. Doubtless these facts will be new to 
many shepherds or feeders of sheep, who are 
apt to think that wool is wool, and the 
wool-buyer who comes around, of whom it 
is said—and most truly, too—that he can 
distinguish a good fleece from a bad one 
without taking off his gloves, is merely an 
agent for bantering and beating down the 
owner whose fleeces are offered for sale, 
and who is disgruntled when he discovers 
that the fleeces of the well-fed flock of his 
neighbor have brought four or five cents a 
pound more than those of his own straw- 
fed sheep. Food is the basis of all animal 
products, and food makes wool as it make* 
milk and meat and fat; therefore he who 
desires to have wool, and good wool, and to 
make profit from his flock, must make 
“feeding for wool” a special study and 
regular practice. 
Studious readers have recently been in¬ 
terested in the results of experiments made 
by Professors Henry, Roberts and Sanborn, 
at the different experiment stations in re¬ 
gard to feeding for lean meat, and alt hough 
the reults were all known and proved by old 
experiments made years ago, yet they have 
been most interesting and useful to those 
who have not known of the valuable con¬ 
tents of standard agricultural literature. 
In these experiments it was shown how the 
lean meat of an animal, the muscular fiber 
of the muscles and the tissue of the vital 
organs,were developed and increased by the 
use of nitrogenous foods. All this, of 
course, went without saying to the expert 
physiologist who knows that “out of noth¬ 
ing nothing comes,” and that one cannot 
produce nitrogenous flesh without using 
nitrogenous food. Now all this is of the 
closest connection and analogy with the 
subject of feeding for wool. Let us con¬ 
sider well the following table: 
COMPOSITION OF 
carbon. 
HYDROGEN 
NITROGEN, 
OXYGEN 
ASH. 
PER CENT. 
Drv Flesh ., 
. SI 88 
7.57 
15 01 
21.37 
4.23 
blood. 
. 57.96 
7 25 
15-C7 
21 30 
4 42 
“ wool.. 
. 60.65 
7 03 
15.71 
21 11 
2.30 
•* hair... 
51.53 
6.69 
15 98 
2k°4 
0.72 
If the figures are added it will be found 
that there is a deficiency in those relating 
to wool and hair of 3.50 and 3.25 per cent, 
respectively, and this deficiency is the 
quantity of sulphur contained in those sub¬ 
stances. Wool, then, or hair, which is iden¬ 
tical with wool in composition, differs only 
from flesh and blood in the amount of sul¬ 
phur which it contains: and this being the 
case “feeding for wool” as a special art and 
practice of the shepherd, is as indispensable 
to the product of the fleece as the feeding 
for flesh is to the production of meat, and 
nitrogenous food is as necessary to the wel¬ 
fare of the flock as it is to the growth of 
the herds. 
But wool cannot be grown without its ac¬ 
companying yolk and a sufficient quantity 
of fat or grease to keep it soft and pliable, 
and to prevent it from “ cotting ” or felting 
upon the sheep’s back. Rain causes dry 
wool to mat and felt in masses, to the de¬ 
struction of the fleece and the injury of the 
skin, so that the character of the yolk must 
be taken into account. This yolk is not fat 
but a true soap, a mixture of alkali (potash) 
with various fatty acids: and contains 
about 30 per cent, of potash salts, (carbo¬ 
nate, chloride and sulphate), with nearly 60 
per cent, of the fats; and the resulting soap 
is soluble in water. The yolk would then be 
quickly washed out of the fleeces were it not 
that it is protected by the grease of the 
wool which causes the fleece to shed off the 
water. 
This is a beautiful (because useful, and 
every natural provision for the useful is 
beautiful in its adaptation and fitness) pro¬ 
vision of nature for the welfare of the 
sheep and the profit of the growing wool; 
and his business (a part of the dominion 
over nature given to man) is to provide the 
necessary aliment for the flock that will se¬ 
cure these results. 
What then should “feeding for wool” con¬ 
sist of ? First, the food should consist of 
such general nutritive elements as will sus¬ 
tain the sheep in the most perfect health, 
and then such elements should be added as 
will furnish the excess of nitrogen, sul¬ 
phur and fat, that will contribute to the 
quantity and quality of the fleece. 
By general consent of shepherds and the 
result of a long experience, clover, either 
green as pasture or dry as hay furnishes 
the. best staple nutriment, as it contains 
a large proportion of nitrogenous matter, 
while clover, wheat or rye bran makes an 
excellent additional food containing the 
necessary nitrogen, with fat and potash. 
Pea straw is an especially useful winter 
food: it is rich in potash and nitrogen and 
is much liked by the sheep: and, as a rule, 
the appetite of animals is a guide to what 
is good for them. Com, while it contains 
all the elements required, the fat especially 
is for some reason not healthful for the 
sheep and the experience brings up a point 
of the greatest importance in this consider¬ 
ation. Food must be healthfully digested 
and assimilated, or it is injurious instead of 
being useful. Dry fodder and hard grain 
are fed in the winter and it is the winter 
feeding that is the most to be considered. 
Summer grazing on young grass or clover, 
both Red and White, is all that is required 
for the most healthful growth of the 
sheep and its fleece, having in it every 
needed element in the most digestible form 
and being sufficiently active upon all the 
animal functions to assimilate the digested 
food and to excrete all the waste. But in 
winter feeding on dry, hard food, the ex¬ 
creting organs are not acted upon suffi¬ 
ciently and much .trouble ensues to the 
careless or unskillful shepherd. Conse¬ 
quently some provision must be made to 
avoid this trouble, and the use of some suc¬ 
culent food is indispensable to the thrift of 
a flock. Mangels, ruta-bagas or turnips 
supply this laxative and succulent food in 
the most acceptable form and should al¬ 
ways be provided. The effect upon the 
wool is especially notable. Roots aid in 
healthful digestion and have an exceedingly 
favorable effect upon the bowels and kid¬ 
neys, ridding the system through these 
channels of the wastes which otherwise 
would be retained or be forced to pass off 
through the skin and lungs, thus causing 
serious interference with the functions of 
these organs, and without a healthy skin, 
healthy wool is impossible. Beyond a 
doubt, the general absence of roots for 
winter feeding is the cause of the common 
troubles incident to the keeping of sheep 
through the winter. Nor will it do to use 
medicines to avoid the troubles so arising. 
If the sheep require a certain quantity of 
sulphur or potash to supply their needs, we 
cannot give these in their common form: 
they must exist in the food, and pass into 
the blood as aliment. 
In my own experience I have found fre¬ 
quent changes of food very useful, with 
clover hay for winter feeding as the staple, 
I have used a mixture of coarsely cracked 
corn, oats, rye and buckwheat, one pint per 
head, given twice a day, in a broad, shallow 
trough so that the sheep cannot swallow it 
too last; a Y-shaped trough is objectionable 
in this respect. A quart of cut roots sprink¬ 
led with bran, per head, given once a day; 
sheaf-oats fed in a rack in place of the 
mixed grain; pea-straw, or oat-straw, and 
corn fodder (the leaves only), and when the 
weather permitted a run in a corn stubble 
or a meadow of which the aftermath had 
been left for this purpose, have been de¬ 
sirable. An ample supply of fresh water 
from a well only, has always been a par¬ 
ticular part of the regimen. Salt of course 
is a regular part of the feeding, and for 
safely (for excess in this is injurious) it is 
best provided in the form of lumps of rock- 
salt placed where free access can always be 
had. Whether ensilage can supply the use 
or advantage of roots I cannot say, not hav¬ 
ing tried it, but I would rather use the 
roots, which are unquestionably excellent 
and always the same. 
Macon County, N. C. 
FROM COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
In order to get a good fleece the sheep 
must be kept in vigorous condition. Many 
farmers suppose that fat is the same as 
vigor. Not so. It is one thing to feed for 
vigor, and quite another to feed for fat. 
In order to obtain vigor we must sustain 
and build the muscles and furnish food to 
make activity. To produce fat requires 
food to fill up the tissues and to store up 
material for heat and life, or existence. 
This condition is attained by rest, quiet 
and the consumption of starchy and oily 
foods — the carbohydrates—while vigor 
comes from the use of the albuminoids or 
the feeding of bran, oats, linseed-meal and 
foods abounding in muscle material and the 
phosphates. Wool is produced more by 
foods of this nature than by the heat and 
fat-forming kinds. We, must, then feed the 
fleece and at the same time feed the body 
which is to produce it. If the body from 
which the wool is to come is made 
feverish there will be a failure, and 
if the foods be too stimulating the 
sheep will shed what wool it may have. 
A moderate amount of oily foods is required 
to furnish the oil the wool should have, 
and it is for this reason that farmers many 
times imagine that there is nothing like 
corn for sheep, as it is so full of oil and 
starch. Corn is not the best food. A little 
corn in winter is all right; but in summer 
I would not feed it for wool-growing. The 
foods which will conduce the most to 
PHOTOGRAPH OP BUTTER CHURNED TOO MUCH. Fig. 254. 
