Evening star., 1941-05-31
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory. Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henrg.

A new race of sheep, without tails
and with stronger wool than that of
any other American variety, is being
developed for the arid Great Plains.
The new sheep is an exceptionally
| hardy animal, able to shift for itself
under the most adverse circumstances.
| 1t can grow fat on as slender pasturage
as a goat, but produces excellent mutton.
| Lambs are born stronger and survive
infancy much better than those of other
varieties.
The first report on this remarkable
new animal has just been made after %
years of experimentation by the South
Dakota Agricultural Experiment Sta
ton, which works in close cooperation
with the United States Department of
Agriculture.
Back in 1913 according to the report
of DR.. James w. Wilson of the South
Dakota station, DR.. N. H. Hansen Of
the State agricultural college, was
wandering through Siberia seeking seeds
and plants in the arid regions that
might be adaptable to his own State
which had similar soil and climatic
conditions. He mingled with nomad
tribes of Kalmuk and Mongol shepherds
in the Siberian deserts
There sheep were strange animals,
each carrying on its body two large
balls of fat which the nomads used for
butter. They had long, stringy, coarse
hair with little resemblance to wool.
The mutton was extremely tough. But,
DR.. Hansen noted, they lived well on
country with only rare patches of vege-
tation, seemed exceptionally free from
disease and-most important of all from
his viewpoint at the time-had no tails.
A Sleeps TAIL DR.. Wilson explains, is
an Achilles heel. 1t usually is cut off by
the rancher. The tail is source of
infection and the South Dakota
scientist says, great many young
lambs are lost each year through mag
gots infesting this organ. Sheep raisers
never have been able to determine any
good purpose it served.
DR.. Hansen brought back small
herd of the animals just before the
first World War. Breeders at the South
Dakota station were confronted with
what seemed at first an uncouth,
worthless lot of animals. The hair,
which could be called wool only by
courtesy, was of no value whatsoever
Underneath it, however. they found
thin coat of very fine wool which re-
minded them of the down on new
born duckling
They started crossing the exotic ami
mails Of the steppes with common breeds
Of American and European sheep-the
Shropshire. the HemShire, and the more
recently introduced Rambouillet. 1t
was believed from the first that the
hardness and foraging ability of the
Siberian animals was tied up genetically
with their lack of tails, but the tail
was hard to eliminate. Through about
25 generations of crossing and re-
crossing it has been brought down to
length of about 2 inches at the most
and many of the lambs are born
entirely tailless.
Although a 2-inch tail is not OBJ
jectionable, DR.. Wilson says, he hopes
in few more generations to breed
1t out of the race altogether, so that
1t will not crop up to bother future
stockraisers. Meanwhile much greater
change has been brought about in the
wool. The coarse hair has been changed
into fleece that compared favorably
with the Rambouillet, especially de-
veloped by the French government and
now the most common sheep in the
United States. Experimental fabrics
woven from it, he says, have even
greater tensile and bursting strength.
Rams of the new breed averaged last
year 9.42 pounds of wool and ewes IA
pounds. These weights are about the
average for the country as a whole,
which was 83 pounds in 1910 and 796
pounds in 1889. Some experimental
breeds. however, run above II pounds
average. CuriouSly enough, it is ex-
planned by Department of Agriculture
specialists, the average weight of wool
produced by American sheep has gone
up steadily an average of .06 of a
pound every year for the last century.
1t was only 2 pounds in 1840.
Efforts now are being made to breed
better mutton qualities into the South
Dakota sheep.