Superior Wool by Special Feed

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 74, 28 March 1936, Page 2

Superior Wool by Special Feed

By feeding sheep a special fatleuing diet, a Californian expert claims he has produced a superior wool, twice as strong as tho ordinary variety, promising clothing and fabrics that will wear far longer than those of to-day. Groups of sheep, kept in pens at the University of California Agricultural College, were fed upon a scientifically-planned ration than caused them to gain weight and improve in health. At the end of six months they were shorn. Then their diet was changed to the ordinary ration of sheep on the range, and they were shorn again after another six months had passed. Tests of the two types of wool made in an air-conditioned laboratory showed the breaking strength of wool from the specially-fed sheep to be more than twice as high as that of tho other samples. In addition, the yield ol wool was 343 per cent, greater. No figures were given of the economic cos t of obtaining the superior wool.