Activity Books Wool & Sheep Activity Book | Page 29

REFERENCE MATERIAL
The sheep was one of the first animals to be domesticated
over 8000 years ago. Sheep were usually seen with humans on the
move because they could be herded easily and they provided humans
with their basic needs - food, clothing and shelter. For the early Stone
Age hunter, the fleece served as a tunic or sleeveless shirt, worn just
as it came from the animal's back. The first weavers used reeds,
threads or grass to make baskets and nets. By Neolithic times, a simple
loom had been invented and the art of weaving was well on its way.
As early as 4000 B.C. wool clothing was worn
in Babylon, Babylon means "Land of Wool". Fifteen
hundred years later, nations of the East began to trade wool, thus
making it one of the early items of international trade.
In Asia, herdsmen used wool for their clothing and for the
carpets that helped insulate the walls and floors of their tents. By this
time, the art of weaving was growing and spreading throughout the
known world. Wool clothing was worn by the richest king and the
lowliest peasant.
Sheep were brought to Spain by the Romans because the
climate was thought to be ideal. Eventually a breed of sheep called
Merino was developed. Merino wool was so fine that it could be made
into the best clothing. Anyone caught taking a Merino out of Spain
could be put to death. Wool was an important economic tool. In fact, the
wool trade helped finance Columbus' explorations of the New World.
It was Columbus who introduced sheep into the Americas. He
left sheep in Cuba and Santa Domingo. Cortez took them into Mexico
where they were soon seen in large flocks. Sheep from these flocks
would eventually find their way to the Southwest and the extreme
western United States. The Navajo Indians traded for sheep and began
their very important art of weaving wool for clothing, rugs and blankets.
Weaving by hand, the Navajo women of the southwest created original
designs of incomparable quality. Today the product of their work is
treasured as art pieces all over the world.
In Europe during the Middle Ages, England and Spain
became rivals in the wool trade. Competition was so fierce the King of
England, Edward III, forbade his subjects to wear clothing made from
foreign wool. By the mid 1600's, wool made up two-thirds of England’s
foreign trade.
Since England did not approve of exporting sheep to the new
world, some sheep were smuggled into the colonies. The colonists
were forced to buy the animals from the Dutch settlers on Manhattan
Island. In 1643, there were about 1,000 sheep in Massachusetts.
Twenty-one years later, there were over 100,000. In 1664, the General
Court of Massachusetts passed a law requiring young people to learn
to spin and weave. This requirement was intended to make the colony
more self-sufficient.
As the American wool trade grew, the English became very
upset. They made sheep raising and wool trading a crime. If caught, the
offender's right hand was cut off. The English restrictions on sheep
raising and wool trade in America was one of the major factors leading
to the American Revolution.
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Thus, weaving homespun wool garments was a sign of
patriotism during the revolution. Both George Washington and Thomas
Jefferson were inaugurated in suits made of American wool. George
Washington even raised sheep at his Mount Vernon home. When
Washington and others began to realize the lack of fine apparel wool in
America, 80 Merino sheep were brought from Spain. They were mixed
with the American herds to upgrade the quality of American wool. Wool
cloth was thought to be so important that weavers and other wool
crafters were given immediate citizenship in the early days of America.
About the same time, Merino sheep from Spain were
exported to France. Louis XVI put them on his estate in Rambouillet
and from these the Rambouillet breed developed. The Rambouillet is
larger than the Merino and is a major breed found in the range country
and high plains of the United States today.
An enterprising British Army officer took 13 Merinos to
Australia. From this original flock of 13 sheep, Australia grew to its
position as the number one wool producer in the world today.
Meanwhile, the manufacturing machinery for the wool
industry was developing in England. As the industry grew, England
replaced hand spinning and weaving with large mills using steam
powered machinery. In 1769, the first American mill was established.
As frontier farmers and their families moved westward, sheep
always went with them, helping to open up the new land.
Sheep have provided humans with many things and yet
sheep can be raised in regions where no other animals can be raised
because of the sheep’s specialized digestive system. Sheep can roam
the arid highland or thrive in farm flock areas. Today sheep are raised
in all U.S. states. The size of a flock varies from a few head to as many
as 10,000 animals.
Of 200 different breeds of sheep in the world, only about a
dozen are important in the United States sheep industry. The most
popular breeds in the United States are the Suffolk, Hampshire,
Rambouillet and Columbia. Of the many breeds present, there are
basically two types: black faced and white faced. The Suffolk and the
Hampshire are black faced and are meat breeds while the Rambouillet
and Columbia are white faced and are bred for their wool.
In the Midwestern, Eastern and Southeastern United States,
sheep are raised in farm flocks consisting of 10-100 ewes. In contrast,
the West and Southwest sheepmen have 1,000 to 5,000 ewes in their
rangeland operations. Of the top five sheep raising states, Texas has
the largest number followed by California, Wyoming, South Dakota, and
Colorado.
Raising sheep is a family operation and in many cases the
land and flocks of sheep have been handed down from generation to
generation.
Today's sheep operation is run like any modern business with
up-to-date scientific research on the most efficient kinds of feed, how to
keep the animals disease-free, and how to improve the quality of the