Wool pulled over professor’s eyes?

Sir, – I enjoyed Jim Hunter’s article (Press and Journal, June 4).

True to form, he gives a most absorbing history lesson, beginning with the threat of imported food, and concluding with that no less concerning subject, rewilding. I was amused at his remark that sheep farmers of yesteryear (presumably mid-19th Century) “weren’t interested in meat production” as their money came from wool. Could it be that these farmers pulled the wool over the learned professor’s eyes?

I cannot imagine a sheep producer of any era who did not consider the value of the animal as a whole, even before the advent of the auction system in the late 19th Century. Farmers in general, and sheep farmers in particular, are a hardy lot. They are to be congratulated for surviving the mood swings of the politician and a sometimes ungrateful public. And as for rewilding . . .

Iain M Thomson, The Yetts, Tain, Easter Ross.