J 22 MERINO WOOL. 



of so -many of our country gentlemen, in improving our 

 valuable stock of first materials. Wool has, for centuries, been 

 considered as one of the first, and Mr. S. has claimed and 

 received the Gold Medal of the Society of Arts, for having 

 produced from his flocks of 1929 Merino and Merino Ryland, 

 the whole bred and kept by him, 7749 lbs. of wool in the 

 year 1812. He has communicated the following observations 

 to the society. 



The Author's Having had the experience of more than ten years, both in 



experience in tne g rowt h an( j manufacture of British Merino wools, which, 

 the growth and ° . • 



manufacture by the constant use of the Spanish rams that came into his 



of wool. Majesty's possession during that period, I have brought to very 



great perfection ; I take this method of making public the 

 result of my observations, as to the mode most profitable for 

 the grower and manufacturer, to prepare the Merino wools for 

 the market ; as considerable difference of opinion and practice 

 prevail on the subject. 

 The superior I had the honour, in the year 1800, to present a memoir to 

 SsKorTand ^ the Board of Agriculture, in a successful claim I made, for 

 Anglo-Merino the Gold Medal given for the greatest quantiry of fine wool, 

 wool arises grown within the year. I therein stated my opinion, that the 

 being kept in principal cause of the superior and characteristic softness of the 

 their grease. Saxon and Anglo-Merino wools, was, their remaining in their 

 native grease, without its being expunged in the extreme 

 degree practised in Spain. Excepting the moderate washing that 

 Saxon and British wools receive on the sheeps' back before 

 shearing, they continue in their grease till they are worked up 

 The wools of by the manufacturer ; while the wools in Spain, as soon as 

 Spain are shorn, are thoroughly scowered, by an injudicious process, and 

 too much then exposed for days to a burning sun, in which brittle and 

 •cowered, hard state they are so closely packed up, that they come out of 

 their bags here, almost as much pressed and hard as hops, 

 wholly deprived of that unctuous preservative, which I con- 

 ceive to be necessary to the soft feel of wool, 

 ami would It has been thought by some, that Saxon and Anglo-Merino 



most probably woo ] s h ave a so ftness peculiar to themselves, and different 

 be soft if bet- \ , , . , /• 



ter mauaged. from the Spanish, their parent stock, obtained from their 



cross 



