B74 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Szpr., 1899. 
horses—that the heavy fleeces of Leicesters, Cotswolds, and Lincolns grow 
on remarkably thin skins. J agree with the late Mr. Adolph Staiger, the cele- 
brated sheep-breeder of Saxony, with whom I hada long discussion on that subject, 
that we donot require so much either a thin or a thick skin for producing the finest 
and, at the same time, heaviest fleeces, but a close-grained yet fine and highly 
organised skin, with an equal thickness, if possible, in every part. If we were 
to make systematic attempts to produce sheep with thick skin, we must naturally 
. interfere with the development of the foetus. ‘The skinis formed at a very early 
period of the growth of the embryo, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that 
the healthy and vigorous extension of the body into length and breadth must, in 
a certain measure, be interfered with if surrounded by an unnaturally thick 
integument during the earliest periods of development. Sheep with unnaturally 
thick skins never grow. big, nor do they fatten easily. It is evident that we 
have to pay very great attention to the development of desirable or undesirable 
qualities in the skin, and it will be highly interesting if we could get more 
reliable and more practical information on that subject. When we compare the 
different kinds of sheep, we find them generally without wool in the face 
and the legs, but covered with a short pointed hair, and the whole central 
line of the body the navel, wither, rump—subject to faulty growth of wool. 
Tt appears that the best wool grows on those parts of the skin that cover thicker 
layers of muscle—namely, the neck, the shoulder, the ribs, the flanks. The 
other parts are singularly opposed to improvement. We wish that every part 
of the skin, every square inch of Nature’s woolfield, should be made productive. 
If we consider how much valuable space of the woolfield is wasted by allowing 
so and so many square inches of skin to lie falloy—if I may be allowed to make 
use of that expression—we must naturally come to ask the question: Why do 
we not obtain better wool crops from the face, the legs, and the belly? It is 
either a matter of neglect on the part of the breeder, or it is owing to a certain 
law of nature as yet unknown to us. T am inclined to believe, yet 1 am not 
too confident about it, that imperfect development of the animal during its 
existence as foetus has a great deal to say to it. Allow me to explain myself a — 
little more fully. The right and the left side of the body are formed more or 
less independently from each other during the period of foetus life. A com- 
paratively short time before the birth of the animal both sides have closed up, 
forming thus a central line of junction, which in many cases remains rather 
backward in development. The open heads of new-born infants furnish good 
illustrations for it, likewise the hare-lip and the open palate at the roof of the 
mouth. Should this explanation be correct, we might guard, to a considerable 
degree, against any such imperfections through feeding the pregnant ewes well 
and by keeping them very quiet. 
Some breeders believe that the fine texture of the skin is in keeping with 
the nature of all the fibres throughout the body. Cattle-breeders certainly 
agree to that, and it is a maxim pretty generally adopted that coarse skin, 
coarse wool, or coarse hair and coarse flesh, occur together. The quality of the 
hair or down on the extremities certainly serves us as a clue to the general 
organisation of the fibres throughout the body, especially of the wool. The 
more evenly and closely the face and the legs are covered with fine and regularly 
stapled wool, the more uniformity will, as a rule, be found in every part of the 
fleece. Of course this does not always hold good with reference to crossbred 
sheep. If there is no regular wool staple on the extremities, there should be at 
least a coat of fine, short, densely-crown and silky hairs. 
The services which are rendered to the organism by means of the skin 
consist chiefly in regulating the exchange of temperature with the atmosphere. 
The skin also appears to relieve the kidneys by carrying off a good deal of 
moisture through the glands that produce the sweat, and by simple evaporation 
of moisture on its surface. It is also worthy of notice that the skin of some 
animals possesses a considerable power of absorbing gases and fluids. The 
numerous experiments of Magendie, Fourcault, Bouley, Gerlach, &c., have 
given us most interesting proofs of the exceeding importance of the skin as a 
