Excerpt from The Resources and Attractions of Utah

There can hardly be less than sheep in Utah. Pounds of wool were handled by Utah buyers in 1887. Of this about one-fourth is worked up by the Utah mills. Fleeces average 5 pounds for ewes, 7 pounds for wethers. Part of it ranges with the best California wools, as to quality, while part of it is inferior. Utah and Montana wools are considered better than the wools of the other Territories. Most of the Utah sheep came from New Mexico down to 1870. Since then ewes have been brought in from Cali fornia, generally fine-wooled Spanish Merinos, but little mixed; fine-wooled bucks from Ohio, and long-wooled from Canada. The same strain of blood in sheep does not produce quite so long a wool as in the east. It is so dry and dusty, the grease seems to absorb the alkali and mineral dust, which makes it harsher and more brittle. But since the large infusion of Merino blood, which has taken place in late years, there has been a marked improve ment in the quality of Utah wool, in respect of length, softness and firmness of fibre. It realizes to the grower, here, crude, about fifteen to twenty cents a pound, according to the range of prices abroad. The strain of blood in cattle, horses, and sheep has been greatly improved in recent years, but it is still the point requiring attention. In Vermont the breeder with the best ram has the precedence. Inferior wool comes from shiftless, careless breed ing. An authority says, aim for the best mutton if you would get the best wool.' This is the system in England, the great mutton-producing and combing-wool-producing country of the world. The characteristic qualities of the English combing wools have been developed upon originally short wooled animals simply through a constant effort to improve their carcasses for the mutton market. From this it seems that the interests of the grower, the consumer of meat, and the manufacturer of wool, are identical, and they all depend upon the quality of the stock ram of the flock.

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