THE WOOL INDUSTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19143, 8 October 1925, Page 16

THE WOOL INDUSTRY.

m ■- EVOLUTION OF THE FLOCKS.! ancient origin of sheep. INTERESTING RELICS. Much information of-interest in regard ; to the evolution of the Australian merino sheep and wool cross, and breeding in Australia and New Zealand, was given recently in a lecture by Professor Cossar Ewart, (Regius Professor of Natural History, at the Edinburgh University), to the ' Bradford Textile Society. Professor Ewart's subject was "Primi- j tive and improved breeds of sheep; the evolution of the Australian merino sheep and wool cross; and breeding in Australia • End New Zealand." The professor said i that at the present day there were two kinds of wild sheep—a group, consisting of the Mouflons of Corsica, Sardinia, Asia Minor, and other parts of South-western Asia, and a group made up of the Urials and Amnions oii Asia, and the Bighorns of America. Though flocks of sheep fed on the great plains between the Ganges and the Jumna at the beginning of the Pliocene period, and though the horn corn of a sheep was found in the Norfolk For«st bed—a deposit formed about half n million years ago—nothing definite was known about the remote ancestors of sheep. Further, until, a few years ago. naturalists admitted that nothing was known about the wild ancestors of the sheep living under domestication. In 1898 Lydekker stated that the wild ancestor of the existing time sheep was "not only extinct, but totally unknown." This conclusion was apparently arrived at because, while in all the existing wild j sheep the tail was short, in all the improved European breeds the tail was long. But in course of time. even Lydekker admitted that the Mouflons had, in all probability, contributed to the making of some of the sheep now living under domestication. Examination of bones collected some years ago by the American Pumpeily Expedition, led to the con elusion that the wild Urial (Ovisvignei), which still lived in the mountain range bet. ween Persia and Turkestan, was domesticated about 7000 B.C. About the same time tjie red Mouflon (Ovis orienialis), was domesticated in Mesopotamia. Some PTimitive Types, In course of time sheep of the-Mouflon type {the ewes of which were hornless), were introduced into Turkisstan, with the result that a mixed race (the Turbary race),-was formed, including ewes of the Urian type with goat like horn:;, and hornless ewes of the Mouflon type. Before 6000 B.C. members of a round-headed Asiatic race brought the Turbary sheep into Europe. Jti the Bronze Age some of the Turbary sheep from Asia were crossed with the European Mouflon. One result of this blending was an increase in the size of some of the trains of the Turbary sheep. Turbary, or peat steep,.(so called because their remains: were found in peat), were widely distributed over Europe during th» Neolithic Age, and there were small more or less pure flocks of Turbary or peat sheep ia many parts of Europe up to the middle of last century. Peat sheep probably reached Britain about the end of the Neolithic Age. The only pure flock of peat sheep now left was found on the small uninhabited . island of Soay (meaning "Sheep Island") near St. Kilda, Some or, the Soay ewes had horns, some were hornless. The hornless "Soay" j ewes in their skeleton resembled the small red Moitflon of Cyprus but the horned Soay ewes and some of the rams in their skeletons agreed very closely with the Urial. The fleece, which consisted mainly of fine wool, usually of a fawn or , reddish-brown colour was shed annually, j It rarely reaches a,weight of 21b, In all probability the peat sheep contributed to the making of most of the original British breeds. "By crossing Soay ewes with a i brown breed of the Mouflon type im- j ported from Russia," said the lecturer, "I have formed a small flock of sheep, ! Mouflon-]ike in shape, but with a fleece ; of fine wool. By inter-breeding the first crosses I hope to form a Mouflon-Soay breed with wool as fine and nearly as soft as the wool got from the vicuna, the small wild aojmal of South America." Characteristics of Merinos. Professor Ewart, iu speaking of Merinos said:—Merino sheep differed so profoundly from all • the known wild species • of-sheep that until recently 1 naturalists felt justified saying they | were descended from an extinct and totally unknown wild species. " I hope, however," said Professor Ewart, to be j able to show that the merino is mainly a 1 blend of the red Mouflon of Mesopo- I tania and the famous wild sheep met | with ia certain wide upland valleys ' (pamiys) ia the Himalayas—the sheep, with large, wide-spreading horns, discovered by and named after Marco Polo (Ovis ammon Poli). The merino only essentially differs from Ovis armaon poli ' in having a long tail, and in having a coat almost entirely composed of wool." j Some years ago Douglas Carruthers, the author of " Unknown Mongolia," ascertained that, in Eastern Bokhara the wild Ovis ammon poli was tamed and used for maintaining the size and vigour of tiie Karakule and other breeds. That for thousands of years tame sheep had been crossed with Ovis ammon poli was proved by a mummified fat-tailed sheep found sortie years ago at Sakhaia near Cairo. This Egvtian fat-tailed breed which inhabitated the Nile valley during the Twelfth Dynasty-—in the time of i the Pharaohs-—apart from its coat and j t.ail.'agieed with Marco Polo's sheep. As I Lydekker pointed out, the ancient fattailed sheep of the Nile valiev belonged I to an Asiatic group which " entered Africa by way of Mesopotamia and Syria." How 1 did the fat-tailed sheep acquire a long i tail ? The long tail found in some of the domesticated sheep o£ Central Asia was doubtless .acquired like the camel's hurnp to admit of sufficient nourishment being stored up to maintain life during the prolonged annual dry season. That the long tail of the merino and other improved modern breeds was inherited from fat-tailed ancestors he proved some years ago by inter-breeding first, crosses between an Afghan ram with a Ion}? tail weighing over 201b., and Soay ewes of the Mouflon type. In several of the secondcrosses the tail was as long and as free of fat as in merino lambs and undocked merino ewes. Influences of Climate. " In all wild sheep," the professor said, •' the fleece during winter consisted of an outer protective coat of hair and an inner coat of wool. In summer the fleece consisted only of .hair- fibres, but in the autumn fine wool fibres made their appearance between the roots of the coarse haid ftlres, and eventually gave rise to a new under beat-retaining coat of wool. In the case of the merin, however there was at birth a complete inner coat of fine wool fibres, and a number of

hair fibres representing the outer coat of wild sheep. The remnant of the outer coat usually soon disappeared on the trunk, but on the head, legs, and feet there was throughout life a more or less complete outer coat of hair as well as a sparse inner coat of wool. In wild sheep, as in the Soay and other breeds, the inner coat of wool was invariably shed annually, but in the merino there is little, if any, shedding of the wool that formed the fleece of fullydeveloped sheep. Where and under what conditions merino sheep acquired the habit of retaining their coat for an indefinite period it was," said tfie lecturer, " impossible to say. But they had evidence of the fact that in merino sheep the woolly coat went on growing for an indefinite pericd. A flock of wethers in Australia was sent in 1914 from the Rivsrina Plain to the Snowy Mountains. Of twelve sheep which strayed hom this flock eight were recovered in 1923. . . " Though these eight had been living m high and rough mountainous country not far from Mount Kosciusko they were perfectly healthy and in good condition. During the eight years of their sojourn the coat continued to grow—in an average specimen the- weight of the geece was Mlb. The-' fibres I examined from one of these lost sheep were free of breaks. Some were short; others were over 20in. in length."