Show stool RESEARCH DISPROVES traditions of traditionally sheep men have believed that the best sheep have coverings of wool over their faces another common belief was that folds around the neck and shoulders of a sheep was an indication of a fleece of superior quality and value another idea commonly held was that the weather exercised a influence in the quality and quantity of wool research work by the united states department of agriculture has disproved two of these ideas and confirmed the other but with highly important modification to bring out the facts the department arkers have for years carried on painstaking investigations using methods which they admit seem wasteful and useless until the methods and results are understood the bureau of animal industry maintains a flock of sheep in eastern idaho each june at shearing time each sheep Is identified weighed and sheared the staple is measured the fleece Is weighed A sample is in a tin container and sent to the united states experiment farm Belts vUle md in the wool laboratory skilled workers dry the samples in an electric conditioning oven and get the moisture tree weight they remove grease with carbon tetrachloride ra and the dirt by a special scouring process another drying makes possible a determination of the weight of clean wool and of dirt thus it is possible to compile a complete record of each sheep s production each year and tor successive years these records have disproved the first two ideas which were widely believed weather does make some alt arence in wool production but there Is much more difference between individual sheep in one season than there is between flocks in different seasons this points the wisdom of constant culling of low yielding ewes and selective breeding for heavy fleece production application of these facts on the sheep ranges is returning to sheep men each year many times the cost of the research says E W sheets who is in charge of the animal husbandry work of the department of agriculture |