Of course you can't take sheep like that on the range.
They would be all over the state."

"I should think it would be a great bother to cut the wool from a Merino
when he is so wrinkly," suggested Donald thoughtfully.

"You show your wit--it is a bother. It takes much longer to clip them
than it does a smooth-skinned sheep. Besides, their fleece is heavy, for
it contains a great deal of oil--or as we call it, yolk. But have done
with Merinos. What others did you learn about?"

"One of the herders told me about the Delaine Merinos and showed me the
long parallel fibers in their wool; he also pointed out a French Merino,
or--or--a----"

"Rambouillet!" laughed Sandy. "I was waiting to hear you twist your
tongue around that word. It took me full a week to learn to say it, and
even now I never say it in a hurry. We have many a French Merino here;
they belong, though, to quite a different family from the other Merinos.
You will find them a much larger sheep, and their wool coarse fibered.
They are great eaters, these French Merinos."

"Like me!" cried Donald.

"Verra like you!" agreed Sandy. "But it is no so easy filling them up.
Why, they will eat a whole hillside in no time. They can beat you, too,
on staying out in all sorts of weather. Here in Idaho we generally have
fairly mild winters, so our sheep can be out all the year round. We have
a few shacks down in the valley where we can shelter them if we have
cold rains during the season. They feed down there along the river,
eating sage-brush and dried hay from fall until spring. It is often
scant picking, but if it is too scant we give them grain, alfalfa hay,
or sometimes pumpkins."

"Why, I never dreamed they stayed out all winter!" ejaculated Donald,
opening his eyes.

"In a state where it is as mild as this one they can. Then in the spring
when the shearing, dipping, and all is done, we start for the range. We
never go, though, until the sun has baked the grass a while, for if the
herd crops too early the sheep pull at the new shoots that are just
taking hold in the soil and up they come--roots and all. Then in future
you will have no grass--just bare ground. Very early grass is bad for
sheep, too."

"What do people do where there are no ranges, Sandy?"

"Their sheep are kept in great fenced-in pastures and fed from troughs
or feeding racks. They have alfalfa hay, turnips, rape, kale, corn,
pumpkins and grain. The range sheep are the hardiest, though. Shee