Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-25
DR., BELLS NEW SHEEP
Famous Inventor Has Orlg!-
mated Peculiar Breed.
ON HIS NOVA SCOTIA FARM
Queer Scientific Studies in Expert
mental Evolution. -.
QUESTION OF TWIN LAMBS
Carnegie Institute is Interested
Some of the Work DR.. Bell is
Doing This Summer.
QUESTION OF TWIN LAMBS
downright 1906. by Frank G. Carpenter.)

downright 1906, by Frank G. Carpenter)
Every man. woman and child has heard
Of DR.. Alexander Graham Bell, who, by in
venting the telephone, annihlIated distance
In our social and business intercourse, ana
brought the mouths and ears OF the human
race together. Every deaf person reVeres
DR.. Bell as the promoter of his fathers IN
vention of visible speech, whereby the So
called dumb talk and understand their fell
lows. and the scientific world knows him
for his many experiments along original
lines and just now especially for his new
discoveries as to aerial navigation.
There is. however, a field in which DR..
Rell has been working of which the world
knows nothing. 1t is a strange field for
him but like the others in which he has
been so successful one where practical re-
sults are being reached by the patient ap-
plication of scientific principles. IL is In ex-
detrimental evolution, and that more espe-
cially as related to stock breeding; " ~:
BELL has been working in this field for
about sixteen years. and his work has al
ready resulted in the origination or new
breed of sheep 1t has also brought 1orth
the discovery of principles, Whlch, car
ried out to their full. may in time make
y great changes In our sheep Industry aho IA
the physical makeup of that race of anil
mails throughout the world.
Sheep Breeding in Australia.
DIR. Bells discoveries are not like any
thing attempted in the past. That sheep
can be improved by selective breeding Is
we'll appreciated in all the great grazing
countries Take for instance. Australia. l
have seen rams sold there at auctioh at
IS 600 apiece for their wool-growing quar-
ties and have been told that the aVeIase e
fleece of seven pounds had been increased
to ten pounds on hocks OF tnous oInu,r,, 81 nf
Va
the world the weight of the LAMBS mas
been greatly bettered by proper Dreeains,
and here in the United states Wnere we
have something like GO,OooOoV sheeP, our
hest stockmen are in the same way AIDING
10 their profits wool and mutton. IN
deed the breeding of fine sheep IS now
considered quite as important as tne
breeding of fine cattle. Wool Is seliing TOT
over 20 cents pound, and we are shearing
from forty to fifty million sheep every
wear. If we can add a pound to every
Heece the increase in our wool clip VIII
be forty million pounds per annum, and at
present prices will add S12OOO,OOo TO It's
value. .
An even greater result can be obtained
~ we could have more and better lambs,
Tor they form one of the chief receipts
from our sheep industry They numbered
% 600 600 at the last census and We're the
offsprings of 100000 ewes. averaging
about two lambs to every three ewes. HAD
each of the ewes had twins our lamb crop
would have equaled 100000 instead OF
% 100000, and would have sold Tor three
times as much.
Doctor Bells Sheep.
These facts give some idea of the prac-
teal side of DIR. Bells experiments. The
scientific side is even more interesting and
far-reaching in its possibilities, and 1t Is
the one which appeals especially to him.
The work is going on steadily upon his
country estate near Baddeck, Nova Scotia,
and now also at the farm of the Carnegie
Tnstitute on, Long Island where studies in
experimental evolution are being made
Dr Davenport the head of the Carnegie
farm has been furnished with some of DR..
PalI's sheep, and a set of carefully record
ga experiments will be made by him under
the Auspices of the Carnegie Institution.
ant will give you the story as DR.. Bell
told 1t to me just before he left for Nova
Scotia few weeks ago.
with sheep" said he. MANY people are
not. / have had farmers scoff at the idea
that sheep have no upper front teeth ana
have seen them surprised to find this the
case. Indeed ] myself knew little about
sheen until 1889, when bought the farms
at Reinn Bhreagh, which now compose my
summer home. In Nova Scotia, near Bad
Heck. Upon one of these farms / found a
flock of fifty-one ewes. and the following
snrine I observed that about one-half OF
the lambs produced were twins. Some Of
the ewes had but one lamb. but many had
two and / began to wonder IL there was
NOT some characteristic which would en-
able one to distinguished the twin-beartng
ewes To find out made careful exam
ination OF the milk bags Of all the mothers.
Now the ordinary sheep bag mas put 1--WE
draws all its milk. This was the case with
INV sheep. ! noticed however that upon
some OF the bags were embryonic nipples In