Winter 1999 Newsletters
Sheep and Wool
History
Sheep have been domesticated for 8,000 to 10,000 years, beginning in Central Asia. Because of their natural flocking instinct, ability to be herded, and usefulness as a source of food, clothing and shelter they were ideally suited for husbandry. The earliest sheep growers used the sheep’s fleece as a kind of tunic.
Around 3500 B.C. humans had acquired the ability to spin wool and to make wool garments to keep themselves warm. This opened new frontiers into regions with colder climates. Between 3000 and 1000 B.C. sheep and wool had spread to Europe through ancient Greece.
The first domestic sheep were introduced to North America by Spanish explorers. In October of 1493, Columbus’ stopped at the Canary island of Gomera on his second voyage across the Atlantic. He purchased wood and water and also sheep, calves and goats, transporting them to Cuba and Santo Domingo.
In 1624, Edward Winslow introduced sheep, brought from England, to the plantations of the Massachusetts Bay. The sheep were very valuable to the settlers for wool as well as for meat. They kept them on the islands in the harbor, where they were protected from predators, such as wolves.
In 1648, a decree was issued in Massachusetts that ordered "that it is lawful for any man to keep sheep on the town common." The sheep were given priority over other animals, because of their importance to Society for clothing. In 1664, a Massachusetts law "required youths to learn to spin and weave." Children and grandmothers would card and spin the wool for their families.
By 1660 to 1675, Nantucket was producing enough wool so that they began to export it to Europe and to other colonies. England was unhappy with the competition. In 1684, the Charter of Massachusetts was revoked for violation of the Navigation Acts which forbade transport of goods between English possessions in other than English ships.
The growth of the wool production and manufacturing in the colonies was one of the foundations of the American Revolution. Many colonist, who could afford the fine English broadcloth, wore the rougher homespun publicly, and home spinning and weaving were encouraged. In 1774, the General Congress issued a decree advising merchants to stop exporting or importing merchandise and to work on domestic products.
During the Revolutionary War, most farmers were away at the war. Farm stocks were depleted, as the animals were used for food. After the war, the nation’s leaders decided to build a wool industry that would give them a product to market to other countries. They began to build up the sheep breeding stocks again, and to improve the various breeds. Many sheep were brought from Northern England and Southern Spain. Weavers and wool-crafts persons from abroad were offered immediate citizenship. By 1810, there was a thriving woolen textile industry in New England. Sheep were a familiar site throughout the countryside. There were 400,000 sheep in Massachusetts and over seven million in the country.
In 1810, the Berkshire County Fair had its first sheep and cattle show with 283 sheep exhibited. A good ram could be sold for one thousand dollars and would rent for two hundred dollars for a season. A sheep was considered to be good if it exhibited several characteristics, including good meat quality, either very coarse or very fine wool texture and the ability to attain all its food needs from local grasses and farm bi-products.
Sheep Farming Today
Today, sheep are grown in all fifty states. The majority of American sheep are grown on large ranches in western states, where the ground is rough and barren or in high altitudes where other animals cannot survive because of lack of vegetation. Sheep farmers in the eastern part of the country produce mostly smaller volumes of wool, and send the wool to market through wool warehouses.
In Massachusetts today, sheep are raised on small family farms with anywhere from a few sheep to three to four hundred head. Usually sheep are not the only farm crop; they are managed as part of an integrated farm. The sheep do well on the land and require very little labor to produce a quality- product that fits well in New England.
Most Massachusetts sheep farmers presently raise pure breed registered stock. Many of the ram lambs are sold for breeding stock. Most of the ewes become replacement ewes. Since most sheep only produce young for eight years, one eighth of the flock must be replaced each year. A number of sheep in the state have won regional and national livestock shows.
Good for Environment
Sheep are also good for the environment. They sustain the land when properly managed. Sheep are the perfect tool for controlling weeds and brush, helping land managers avoid mechanical and chemical means of control. In fact, they work so well that corporate and government land managers have adopted or hired flocks to help in reforested areas, watersheds, ski slopes and under power lines.
Sheep Breeds
Depending on the breed of sheep, farmers raise them for either the meat or wool, seldom both. Some breeds put more of their energy into their heavy coat, producing a better wool. Others put their energy into muscle, producing a finer tasting meat.
In Massachusetts, most sheep today are either pure breeds of these sheep or influenced by these breeds: Dorset, Suffolk, Hampshire, South Downs, Cheviot and Corriedale . These are the classic breeds of the last fifty years. Some farmers are also raising: Columbia, Finn, Montadale, Rambouillet, Romney, Shropshire, Merino, Tunis, Lincoln, Cotswold, Border Leicester, Jacob, Islandics, Oxfords, Polypay, Texels and Shetlands. The most popular dairy breed of sheep is East Friesland.
Sheep Shearing
Sheep are usually sheared in the spring, when they can survive without their warm fleece. Sheep will catch cold if they are shorn too early in the season. The first year that wool is shorn from a young sheep, it is called lamb’s wool. This wool is finer, and is very soft and even in consistency. The farmer may shear the sheep himself or hire someone to do the shearing. The wool is removed in one piece, called a fleece. The fleece is spread out so that large pieces of soil and hay can be removed. Then it is bagged and stored until it can be washed and carded (combed). Today, most farmers send the fleece to a mill for washing and carding. They receive back clean, roved wool that is ready for spinning.
Information for this article was provided by Ed Bourgeois of the Pioneer Valley Sheep Breeders Association
Sheep and Wool Facts
- More than 500 farms in Massachusetts raise sheep and lambs.
- Each year approximately 8,500 lambs are born on farms in Massachusetts.
- The value of the Massachusetts sheep and lamb inventory is $1,380,000.
- Approximately 9,000 sheep are shorn on farms in Massachusetts each year producing 63,000 pounds of wool.
- Each fleece weighs between eight and fourteen pounds. A ten-pound fleece might weight only five pounds after washing to remove the lanolin and soil. The farmers are paid by the weight of the raw wool.
- In spring, sheep are shorn on farms all over Massachusetts. For information on sheep and wool farms visit the www.massgrown website.
- Some Massachusetts farmers produce yogurt, Romano cheese, Parmesan cheese and Roquefort cheese from sheep milk. Sheep cheese is very sweet and very smooth. The fat in the sheep milk is more easily digestible than that of cows milk.
Sheep Vocabulary
Ewe - A female sheep is called a ewe.
Ram - A male sheep is called a ram.
Lamb - A baby sheep is called a lamb. It’s a lamb until it is one year old.
Flock - Sheep live in groups called flocks.
Wool is the natural fiber produced by sheep.
Shearing - Sheep are sheared of their wool in the spring.
Fleece - The wool is removed from the sheep in one piece, called a fleece.
Scouring - The fleece is washed in a tub to remove dirt, grease, grass and some of the lanolin. This is called scouring.
Carding is combing the clean, dry wool to straighten the fibers.
Yarn - The wool is spun into yarn. The coarser wool is spun into woolen yarn, used in carpets or thick sweaters. Finer wool is spin into worsted yarn, used to make light- weight fabric like suits and dresses.
Crimp - natural waviness of the wool.
Lambs
Sheep breed in the fall and the lambs are born in the spring after a five month gestation. The mother ewe can give birth to one, two or three lambs. Usually they are twins. The lambs stay with their mother until they are three to five months old. Then they are weaned. They graze on the grass in the pasture with only a little supplemental grain. Lambs are full grown when they are about six months.
In the natural environment, the young male lambs are isolated from the flock and forced out on their own in the woods, where they are often killed by predators. In our domestic prairie, with humans as managers, farmers choose to keep only a few ram lambs, the rest are sold for food. Lambs that are sold for meat are usually sold when they are 90 to 140 days old. They may be sold up to a year of age.
The Magic of Wool
All mammals have some kind of protective hair or fur-like covering, but not all bear wool. Sheep have two types of fibers: an outer coat of hair and an undercoat of much softer wool. Wool fibers are solid cylinders made up of a protein called keratin, with a scaly surface that permits the fibers to be compressed together to form felt. Hairs are made of keratin too, but they are hollow. Our fingernails are also keratin.
In general, hair grows relatively straight and wool grows with a crimp, or wave, that gives it elasticity, so that it bounces back like a spring after it is stretched. The crimp in wool fibers enables the fabric to trap air as insulation. So wool keeps us warm, and also keep us cool. Wool does not soil easily, but it can take dye easily and holds color well without fading. Wool is water repellent. It is also flame-resistant, and if it does catch fire, it tends to burn slowly.
Making Felt
Felt is matted wool. The wool becomes felt when it is exposed to moisture, heat and pressure. Hot soapy water makes the wool slippery. With agitation, the fibers get hopelessly tangled together. When cooled and dried, it locks the wool into a tough, durable material, called felt. You will need: approximately thirty minutes, a half-ounce of washed and carded wool, a nine-inch cake pan, liquid detergent, a sink, and hot and cold water.Divide the wool into three equal portions. Spread the first portion evenly across the the bottom of the cake pan, so that all the fibers run in the same direction. Place the second layer on top and at a right angle to the first. Repeat with the third layer, arranging the fibers at right angles to the layer directly below.Squirt a small amount of liquid detergent over the top layer of the wool. Then gently pour about a half cup of hot water over the wool. Press straight down onto the wool pile so that the wool compresses into a mass on the bottom of the pan. Add more hot water until all the wool is wet. Work around the edges, pressing down until all the wool is matted down.
Hold the pan in one hand, while you gently massage the edge of the wool with the fingertips of the other hand. Use your palm to agitate the center. Slowly rotate the pan as you work. Keep rolling the edge of the wool slightly inwards to give a smooth, finished shape. The soap will squish up between your fingers as the wool mats together. Continue for five minutes, then use a more vigorous circular motion for another five minutes.After about ten minutes, the felt will hold together well enough to turn it over. Tip the pan and gently flop the wool out into your hand and place it upside down in the pan. Add more soap or hot water if necessary, and continue working the wool.Run warm water into the pan and pour off the soapy water. Then run cold water over the wool and press the water out of it. It should be round, about and eighth of an inch thick, and a little smaller than the pan. If you continue working it, it will grow thicker and smaller, as you reduce the air spaces between the wool.When you’re finished felting you may want to use an iron (set at wool) to speed up the drying and flatten the felt.
Too make felt balls: wrap layers of wool strips together, as if you were winding a ball of string. Use hot soapy water, roll and work in your hands.
Dyeing with Natural Materials
Many plants were found to be successful dyes for wool. The plants were boiled down in pots. The material or thread was then added to the dye in the pot. Mordents such as vinegar and salt, alum, potassium bichrome and copperas, were used with these natural dyes to set or fix colors and keep them from fading.
Plants for Natural Dyes
Coffee and tea make a greenish colored dye with no mordant necessary.
Black walnut husk warm brown
Coffee greenDogwood reddishDusty Miller grayGoldenrod gold-orangeHickory nut pinkish beigeIris juice violetMarigold orange brownMullein yellowOak bark yellowOnion skins gold, rust, grayOrange pekoe tea greenishPeach leaves yellowPokeberry deep redQueen-Anne’s lace root yellow-tanSassafras bark orange
Wild grapes green