The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1882-02-24
Wool Growing and sheep Breeding.

Wool Growing and sheep Breeding.
The question many times asked,
whether wrinkles on sheep are desira-
bic, is answered, when We understand
the chemistry of wool growing.
After the food is eaten, digcstcd, aud
the nutritious matter taken up by the
lacteals and conveyed to tho blood,
the blood Is a chemical laboratory,
manufacturing the different ingredients
that the system requires for Its growth,
and to supply the places Of worn out
matter. One of those ingredients is
called silica, of which the beaks,
nails, feathers and quilts of birds Is
composed; and the horns. hoofs, teeth,
hair, wool and skin Of animals is
composed of the same. After knowing
that fact, We can easily understand that
the silica Ia secreted In the skin before 1t
passes to make wool, and II there Is
a large supply of II more skin Is
formed than can lay on the sheep
without being thrown out In wrinkles
or folds. To get heavy fleece, such
sheep must be kept as in their blood
q larg6 amount of silica is mSnufac-
tured; and as that Is first attracted to
the skin before It Is changed to wool,
wrinkles and folds are unavoidable
on sheep that produce very. heavy
fleeces. The thin, smooth skin will
produce only a moderate or light
growth of wool. We might as we'll
expect q great growth OF grass OIL
dry knoll where the soil is poor,
as a great growth of wool on dry
thin, smooth skin, like those of the
Saxony sheep. Ii the skin is thick
and coarse, 1t may be smooth, like
that of SO mo of the coarse wool breeds
and bear good fleece, but not the
best or heaviest. Tho skin of the
fine wooded sheep Is made of finer
quality of silica than that of the coarse
wooded sheep, and is not as thick,
therefore of necessity, when the silica
is abundant, the skin is thrown out
in wrinkles and folds. Even the flesh
Of the fine wooded sheep Is 80, fine
grained that many object to 1t for
mutton. The skin of the coarse
wooded sheep, being composed of q
coarser material than that of the fine
wooded sheep Is as much coarser as
their wool is coarser than that of the
fine wooded sheep. The silica manuiac-
tured in the blood of an animal may not
all be equally fine, some of 1t being
30 coarse, of which the folds and
wrinkles are composed, as to form q
thick skin, on which jar, long hairs
and coarse wool grow. To obtain an
even fleece, those sheep are to be pre-
fered whose blood produces silica of
equal flneness and then there will be
no jar or coarse wool on the folds or
wrinkles.
BY breeding the sheep whose blood
produces the greatest per cent. of silica
of Oil even quality, the most and best
wool is obtained.
contained in the food eaten is what
makes the blood; and for the blood
to produce an abundance of silica,
there must be good supply of food
containing nutritious matter; for II
the food be scaut, it will nearly all he
consumed as fuel to keep the sheep
warm and in producing those in9re-
dicnts that are required to supply the
place of worn out matter, there being
but little to spare for silica. Wool
grows but slowly when the sheep is
losing flesh.
We give it as our opinion that the food
that contains the most gluten will pro-
duce the most silica. Wheat bran
contains eighteen per cent. of gluten,
the same as oats; beans and peas
contains twenty-five per cent. of
gluten, but corn abounds mainly in
fatty matter, and of course will pro-
duce the most oil. A just amount
of oils, say enough to keep the skin
soft, is necessary when great growth
Of wool Is desired, but too much oil and
too little silica will make fleece that
viii fail to keep the sheep warm.
In breeding sheep to improve them,
the ram should be unlike the ewes,
though of pure blood. Sameness
don't give any chance for improve.
ment. But am asked If breeding In
and in cannot be done, SO as to i'm
prove the ffock2 1t can be done as
long as rams can be selected from
the flock that are unlike the ewes In
some important points besides sex;
but when there Is a continual same
ness In the flock, and all are 30 near
alike that no material difference can
be discovered asl lie from the sex. i'm
provement' in that flock by breeding
is at an end. The greatest improve.
ments that have been made Ia sheen
have been by wide crosses with
those of pure blood but different.
Consul Jarvis bred In and in, and
never improved his flock, because his
rams were too much like HIS ewes
but when he sold one TO Tyler Stick
ney that carried fleece that weighed
nine lbs. washed, that ram being nut
with ewes that bore six or seven lbs.
or washed wool, but being unlike the
ram, the issue was the "Fortune" that
Mr.. Jewett bought; and the "Vcrmont
Hero, that Mr.. Bingham bought, that
bore heeces that weighed lS or IA lbs
when washed That was very great
Improvement for ole cross.
IL looks as though the power that
governs the universe had a great dis
IKE to perfect sameness, for there
are no two things In nature that are
exactly alike, and whoever tries TO
produces perfect sameness, will do
well to remember that ho 10 striving
against God.
Inc mule Is very wide cross, but
though 1t leaves no issue, II is moro
hardy and much stronger than the
morse. IL requires q good horse OF
Twelve cwt. To equal In strength a
mule OF nine cwt. Tho mnlatto IL de-
cldedly stronger than the man OF the
black or white race.
Too close breeding lnpalrs the con-
stituiion, weakens the nerves aud In.
lures or weaken, the brain power the
nnai result OF which 10 general debility
and stupidity. Own cousins, by law,
are forbidden TO marry. Bnt while TOO
close breeding impairs and reduces,
wide. crosses Improve and strengthen.
Improve ment In sheep can be con
timed a. long as the constitution and
strength can be kept up, and rams
ionnd that are unlike the ewes In i'm.
portant. points, but when 30 much OIL
the FOOD Gas II passes Into The bloody |
IS manufactured Into silica that there
Is not enough OF II left TO produce those