Show OL 00 ri M dm IVA ato rambouillet GIVE HEAVIEST FLEECES irre prepared pared by the he un united led stat e a department ot 0 agriculture wool growers are accustomed to think that yearlings yearnings year lings shear the heaviest fleeces of any age group recent tests made by D A spencer lu in charge of tile the sliced and wool investigations united states department of agriculture do not bear out this popular belief averaging the weight of fleeces i of 1480 Rata bouillet sheep ranging in ngo age front from one to seven ven years old he found that the three year old owes ewes sheared the he heaviest fleeces of etc clenn 11 0 wool produced by any group their average being 13 per cent greater than the average for the entire group the fleeces from ewes soven seven years old or older averaged 10 15 per cent below the average and were the lightest fleeces produced by any age group the yearlings yearnings year lings fleeces were nearly 8 per cent below the average and with the exception of the seven year old group they were tho the lightest in spite of tile the fact that they had grown for about thirteen or fourteen months while all the fleeces from owes ewes older than yearlings yearnings year lings had grown exactly one year on tile the whole the data show that the trend la is up from year yearnings yearlings lings to three year olds and down from three year olds to saven boven year olds the fleeces were grown under practical range conditions at tile the united states sheep experiment peri perl ment station dubols dubois idaho |