Robert Homer Burns - (1900-1973)
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Campbell County High School, Wyoming
I. Personal and Professional Life
Robert H. Burns was born in 1900 on the Flag Ranch nine miles south of Laramie. He attended Regis College in Denver and in 1916 entered the University of Wyoming to study agriculture, he graduated in 1920. In 1921 he obtained a fellowship at Iowa State College and received an M.S. Degree in Animal Nutrition. He then taught at New Mexico A & M College and at the University of Arizona. In 1924 he joined the Wool Department at the University of Wyoming. (Annals of Wyoming, 109)
In 1930-31 he studied at the University of Edinburgh and obtained a Ph. D. Degree in Science working in Animal Genetics. Burns developed the "Wyedina" (Wyoming-Edinburgh) and "Wyedesa" fleece calipers to separate the wool from a measured patch of skin to see how thick the wool grows on the skin.
In 1938-39 The U. S. Department of Agriculture asked Burns to help organize and work on the wool shrinkage in the Wool Division of the United States.
In 1946 he was selected as the livestock consultant of the China-United States Agriculture Mission and was sent to China for six months by the U. S. Departments of State and Agriculture to work with the Chinese colleagues and make out a program for research, teaching and extension work in Chines Agriculture.In 1949 he was selected as the livestock consultant for Overseas Consultants Incorporated of New York and spent three and a half months in Iran making a survey of the conditions of that country. (Annals of Wyoming, 110)
Robert Burn's research about wool has been very popular. He offered many classes about wool. Graduating students from around the country at that time took wool short courses. This was to establish the basics of knowledge on wool. (Annals of Wyoming, 111)
His research work has dealt with the physical measurements of fleeces including wool growth, fleece finesse and fleece density. He worked with wool shrinkage or yield for many years and has developed methods of hand sampling to find the clean weight of fleeces. He published many articles covering wool research, fur farming and ranch history. Burns provided material for the American Wool Handbook by Bergen. He collected the most complete set of wool samples from all sections of the work including some extremely rare samples of Saxony Merino of the 1830 clip. (Annals of Wyoming, 112)
Not only was he a professor at New Mexico, and the Wool specialist for Wyoming, he also liked to write books. His books usually told of the history of his life growing up and a little about Laramie Wyoming. His books are The Flag Ranch, Wyoming's Pioneer Ranches and finally The Newman Ranches; Pioneer Cattle Ranches of the West. (Annals of Wyoming, 113)
In The Flag Ranch Burns tells about his founding fathers who discovered Wyoming, and the struggles and successes, of his grandfather and father. The book tells about when Bob Homer, who is Burns grandfather, came to settle in Wyoming looking for a fast deal hearing of all the riches held there. Wyoming's Pioneer Ranches is a collection of stories by three authors who grew up around Laramie, Chugwater. This book tells of how the Wyoming cattle industry was established and also about the many experiences that these three authors had. In 1955 Burns received an historical award for Wyoming's Pioneer Ranches. Stating that this book was the most complete and accurate book published about wyoming's ranches and cattle industry. (Annals of Wyoming, 206 )
II. Work Cited
Annals of Wyoming. Cheyenne: The Wyoming State Historical Department, 1950.
This essay was submitted by a student of Nathel Coca, a teacher at Campbell County High School in Gillette, Wyoming.