810-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 28, 1995
Kids
Sheep Popular
LINDA WILLIAMS
Bedford Co. Correspondent
WILLIAMSBURG, Va.
While much has changed in the
world since the 1700 s, life in
Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia,
has a much slower pace.
Each morning in this historic
city, the people who go to work in
the various trades of the 1700 s,
dress and speak as though time has
stood still.
They talk about how we might
gain our independence from Eng
land; about the new Spanish
colony in the south (now Florida):
about how ridiculous it would be
to have the capital city located
where Washington D.C. now
stands. “There’s nothing there but
an infested river with slimy crea
tures in it,” says a carriage driver.
In the 1700 s, Williamsburg was
the capital city of this new land.
And, even with all its importance,
the population was only 1,800
people and 900 of these were
slaves.
On the outskirts of the city
were farms. Oxen, sheep and even
turkeys were often seen being dri
ven on foot through Williamsburg
for an auction destination.
The most common sheep of
that day was called the Leicester
Longwool and this breed is still
being raised in Williamsburg. It is
one of the very oldest breeds of
sheep from England. England was
the ruler of the colonies and the
governor who was the highest
ranking, richest, man in the new
world lived in Williamsburg.
England was somewhat snob
bish about their wool fabrics and
those sent to the colonies were
quite costly. Most of the people
living near Williamsburg had little
money but desperately needed
wool.
Nearly all of their clothing was
made from wool. The richer peo
ple wore finer wools and the poor
and the slaves wore wools made
from coarser fibers.
To avoid having to purchase all
of their fabrics from England, the
people living in the colonies began
to raise their own sheep.
George Washington, the first
president of the United States, had
his own flock of sheep which
ranged from 600 to 900 head.
That was a large flock for one
farmer, as the average fanner had
only 20 to 40.
Washington loved farming and
experimented with crossing vari
ous breeds of sheep to see if he
could get finer wools or more meat
from his animals.
The Leicester Longwool, how
ever, remained one of the most
popular wool breeds of that day.
Today, m the United States, the
Merino has replaced this earlier
breed. At Colonial Williamsburg,
those who manage the sheep feel it
is important to keep this breed
alive. “We never know when some
disease might wipe out all of the
Merinos and we would need to
rely on these older breeds,” says
Elaine Shirley who does a lot of
the work with the sheep.
While sheep farmers today can
be quite particular about the grass
es on which their sheep graze, the
early farmers around Williams
burg raised sheep because they
were easy to feed.
Anyone with a 4-H sheep pro
ject knows parasites and worms
arc a problem. This is not a new
problem, but the treatment is
slightly different. Farmers today
shove a pill down the sheep’s
throat to rid them of the parasites,
colonists gave them tobacco juice.
The worms which invaded the sys
tems of the sheep could not toler
ate the tobacco so would die and
pass out of their systems.
“The sheep grazed on what
grasses were growing so that is
what we still let them do today,”
says Elaine Shirley.
Those who raise sheep today
usually have a sheep shearer who
travels from farm to farm each
spring to shear the wool. At Colo
nial Williamsburg this was not an
option.
Farmers could not afford this
luxury and so they learned to shear
their own sheep. Consequently
there were more different ways to
shear than there were breeds of
sheep.
It has been learned by those
who have researched and studied
the early methods of living in the
1700 s that wool was used in many
more ways than we use it today.
In this city which still lives as
though the calendar never shed its
pages, “wool is used for the same
reasons as it was in those early
days when George Washington
and Thomas Jefferson were get
ting notions of independence in
their heads.
Craftsmen who use wool at
Williamsburg include the saddle
maker, the shoe makers known as
cobblers, printers, furniture mak
ers, weavers, and even builders.
Wool was used for insulation to
help keep homes warmer in the
winter days which came even to
this southern part of Virginia.
Saddle makers stuffed saddles
with wool and furniture makers
stuffed the cushions of chairs or
sofas with wool.
In the print shops where the SLED
local newspaper was printed, wool SNOWSUIT
was used on pads to help soak up FUN
excess ink.
A
Even back as far as the 1700 s
craftsmen learned that lanolin, C
was a valuable by-product of
wool. By extracting the lanolin, ' J
cobblers were able to make the S
leather of shoes softer. v.
Wealthy ladies who were as
concerned about their beauty as Q
women still are today used lanolin ....
on their skin. ”
Wool was woven into cloth and
used to make dresses, suits, pants,
skirls, and bonnets for both sum- A
mer and winter. However, once
the southern colonies learned how
to raise and process cotton, it E
became more popular for warmer q
weather. a
Anyone with a sheep project Y
can feel proud that they are raising , ,
one of the oldest and most useful
of farm animals in America. £
Korner
On Early Colonial Farms
Eli je bin..jy is one of the people who take care of the sheep at Williamsburg,
Virginia. Elaine, who has*her degree in animal husbandry, studies about the uses of
wool in colonials days. Her latest project is to learn how lanolin was extracted from
wool in the 1700 s.
SUPER SNOWY FUN!
Try to find these wintery words! Be careful! They’re slipping across the page up, down, sideways, and backwards!
SNOW
SLIPPERY
ICE SKATING
SMILE
SLUSH
L
D
E
L
w
o
N
SLEET
SAUCER
SNOWMOBILE
SNIFFLES
SNEEZE
SNOWFLAKE
SUN
SKATES
' ’>***
WHEE!!!
SKI
Puzzle By
Gail Struck
p
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