, 1907-04-06
A. r. L Manager.

eral experiments, one or two of which.
we will try to give your readers some
description.
The first of these and the one which
will produce the-quickest results is the
wool securing plant recently installed.
The machinery for this was bought in
the east, and is what is technically
known as a three-bowl plant, one for
securing. and two for washing and
rinsing. The machine is directly in
charge of a man who has been sen to
a Philadelphia mill to learn the actual
business of sorting, securing and dry
ing wool. With this equipment, the
experiment station proposes to fur
nish its service to, Wyoming wool grow
ers to a limited extent this coming
spring, in aiding them to determine the
s%hrinkage of their clips, SO that they
may have something beside the guess
of the wool buyer by which to deter
mine the value of their product.
Starting on Small Scale.
Because of their inexperfence in
handling this plant and all its intri.
cacies, they are compelled to confne
themselves to small proportions this
year. To this they have determined
to take from each mans band three or
four ~fleeces, from ~two-year-old ewes,
scour these fleeces, and sen the owner
a report of the ~shrinkage SO promptly
that he will get it before he wants to
sell his wool ~(unless he has contracted
it,. This work they will do free of
charge for any Wyoming wool grower
who wishes to send them such samples.
That this method of selecting sam
pies will not give entirely satisfactory
results is seif-evident, and next year
they intend TO have samples selected
by taking a fleece from each sixtieth
sheep that runs through the chute, in
this way getting an average Of the en-
tire band. If a fair sample of an entire
clip car not be secured this way, the
last resort will be to send out a man
10 collect the samples. Lack OF facili.
ties prevents the adoption of the latter
plan this year, but with the start indi-
Gated they hope to prove the tbene-
fit of the securing to every wool grow
err, and demonstrate that 1t is practi-
cal.
Some Interesting Theories.
But of course they have their the
cries, and in this connection they have
several interesting ones. They pro-
pose to experiment and try to deter
mine the effect of alkali on the scour-
ing percentage n on the strength of
the woods. They have a machine for
testing the strength of the fiber, and
also one for testing its fineness. An
other theory of theirs is that the cross.
ing of coarse wool and fine wool
of fiber, and they think they can deter
mine results as between the various
crosses of breeding; for example, as
between a Strengthening. and a Cots
wold-Merino, and many others, and put
down these results in black and white
The basis of this operation is in all
cases to be a cross of the coarse wool
ram on the fine wool eve. BY this
method they think to determine which
cross will produce the best fleece for
the average range sheep grower.
May Save Some Time.
Then they have another nice little
theory that it is possible to take a
small sample, not an entire fleece but
a very small portion of 1t, and from a
number of such samples from an entire
percentage of the clip. II they can
demonstrate the feasibility Of this, 1t
will be a much cheaper and quicker
method of determining the s%hrinkage.
Strongest In Country.
So much for the wool part of their
work. Another part Of their work Is
with the various breeds. AS Prof. Nor
ton told US, wv are trying to work up
the strongest sheep department of any
agricultural college in this country
And with this end in view they have
recently secured by purchase a few
head of nearly all the various breeds,
generally three ewes and a ram of
each. Noteworthy among these breeds
as being quite new to this country and
littl. lpouo aro tho Uapsleyda1a the