Before leaving this subject, permit me to call your attention to another important matter in connection with sheep husbandry in this State. Sufficient care has not heretofore been taken to clean and otherwise properly prepare this great and important staple for market, and the consequence has been that the character and representation of "Michigan wool," I am sorry to discover, has been very seriously lowered in the market, and a great loss to the producers has thereby been sustained. It is a fact, perhaps not generally known, that from this cause alone, "Ohio wool" sells for about _five_ to _ten cents_ per pound more than "Michigan wool." In an interview which I recently had with an extensive eastern manufacturer, who was induced last season for the first time to purchase a lot of "Michigan wool," he expressed his surprise that the Michigan wool growers should be so heedless of their own interests as to overlook this important fact. From his statements I learned that the prejudice of the manufacturers against "Michigan wool" was so great that many of them would not buy it at hardly any price when they could get "Ohio wool." He said a large proportion of our wool was poorly washed, and that this was true of a great proportion of our finest and best lots; and that it was not only sent to market in this condition, but was badly and slovenly put up, with much larger twine than they use in Ohio,--the fleeces, also having a torn and jagged appearance; and many of them, when opened, were found to contain the _unwashed_ tags. He, however, expressed himself highly pleased with the quality of the wool he had purchased, and said it compared favorably in that respect with any he had ever received from Ohio; and he believed if our wool could be sent to market as clean and in as good condition otherwise as the Ohio wool,--and the prejudice which has been created against it, in consequence of this not having been the case heretofore, could once be removed, he doubted not that "Michigan wool" would command in the market the highest prices and the most ready sales.