Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1889-11-29
Sheep Jnterest.
HAS THE AMERICAN MERiNO DE.
PERFORATED
From the Michigan Farmer.


from 1865 to 1875, when wool was sell
ing from 80 cents to 81 pound, and the
farmers wanted the sheep with the most
wool, and the Merino ram. with his
wrinkles and fleece of % or 30 pounds,
seemed to be Just what was wanted.
There is no denying that the American
Merno did not bring thousands and
thousands of dollars into the West. The
first of these sheep were smooth with
silken wool; then came the rage for
wrinkles, and money was lavishly spent
for the sheep with the greatest number
of folds. From that time dates the fall
of the American Merino. These greasy,
wrinkly rams, in few years did more
to destroy the high character of our
woods than can be gained by years of
careful breeding. What remains of this
class of sheep is being rapidly sent far
ther west, and even if it be not charita-
BILE to indulge the hope, it is still proba-
BILE that the use of these sheep will have
the same effect on the cheap woods of
the West that they haye had on ours.
Twenty-Five years ago the American
Merino was a grand sheep, and small
fortune is in store for the man who can
make him what he was at that date
[Colman's Rural World.
We must take issue with the above
paragraph. 1t is supported neither by
history or Stradtion. First, let us OBJ
serve that the greatest boom the Ameri-
can Merino ever had was from 1S76-
centennial year-to 1883. 1t made more
money for its breeders as a class, and
greater Improvements were made in its
qualities as a wool-bearing animal than
during any similar period within the
memory of any person living. We
know it is popular with some to refer to
"the good old times" as the golden age
and decry the present; but their grand
fathers did the same thing, and are quot
ed away back in the revolutionary days
as asserting that men were degeneratng
and the country going to ruin. 1t is the
privilege of old age to do this. and no
one will find fault. But for any intelli-
gent man, in full possession of his facul-
ties. and who claims to know what he is
writing about, to make the assertion
that the Merino of to-day is an inferior
animal to the Merino of twenty-five
y IL
lack of knowledge of its history.
Twenty-Five years ago-lSG4-the aver
age carcass of the Merino eve was -
lbs, and the average fleece of good
specimens did not exceed six pounds.
The clip of the United States did not
average three lbs. per head. The car
cass of a ram rarely exceeded 10 lbs,
and the fleece was an exceptional one
which weighed over Is lbs, when the
animal was fully matured. Remember
this was before the Territories had gone
into wOol-growing. and the flocks were
generally on the well cultivated farms
of Vermont. New York, Michigan, Ohio
and Pennsylvania. Now the Merino
eve which does not weigh close to 100
lbs. when matured, and give a fleece be-
tween 10 and - pounds, is looked upon
as Gull. The carcass of a ram ranges
between l35 and l55 lbs, and the fleece
between % and 81 lbs, when fully ma
tured. The quality of the wool is finer
and the fleece more even in that respect
over all parts of the body: the carcass
is better covered, and the staple longer
on the belly. fanks and neck This
has been brought about by the use of
wrinkly. greasy rams, and could not
have been secured by any other method.
Every attempt to improve the shearing
qualities of the Merino by the use of
plain, long stapled rams has ended in
disappointment and failure. and always
will.
Another point: Wrinkly sheep are
not being sent west. 1t is the palmer
ones. They do better where left to
Shift for themselves on the ranges, be-
cause they can rustic better than the
big wrinkly fellows with enormous
fleeces. But the latter, on the cultiva-
ted lands of the older States, are and
must be the reliance of flock owners
who wish to keep up the shearing quail
ties of their flocks.
Again, we fully believe that the aver.
age fleece of a Merino sheep to-day, at
present prices, will purchase as much
of the necessares of life as would the
fleece of the average Merno in 1864
when gold was selling at premium OF
40 cents on the dollar over the currency
paid farmers for their wool.