MECHANICS AND USEFUL ARTS. 101 



CURIOUS EXPERIMENT IN WOOL GROWING. 



IN a lecture recently! delivered by Mr. Owen at the Society of Arts, 

 the professor detailed he particulars of a highly interesting experi- 

 ment, which resulted in the establishment of one of the very few 

 instances in which the origination of a distinct variety of domestic 

 quadruped could be satisfactorily traced, with all the circumstances 

 attending its development well authenticated. We must premise it 

 by stating that amongst the series of wools shown in the French 

 department of the Great Exhibition, were specimens characterized 

 by the jury as a wool of singular and peculiar properties ; the hair, 

 glossy and silky, similar to mohair, retaining, at the same time, certain 

 properties of the merino breed. This wool was exhibited by J. L. 

 Graux, of the farm of Mauchamp, Commune de Juvincourt, as the 

 produce of a peculiar variety of the merino breed of sheep, and it 

 thus arose : 



In the year 1826, one of the ewes of the flock produced a male 

 lamb, which, as it grew up, became remarkable for the long, smooth, 

 straight, and silky character of the fibre of the wool, and for the 

 shortness of its horns. It was of small size, and presented certain 

 defects in its conformation, which have disappeared in its descend- 

 ants. In 1829, M. Graux employed this rani with the view to obtain 

 other rams, having the same quality of wool. The produce of 1830 

 included one ram and one ewe, having the silky quality of the wool ; 

 that of 1831 produced four rams and one ewe, with the fleece of that 

 quality. In 1833, the rams, with the silky variety of wool, were suffi- 

 ciently numerous to serve the whole flock. In each subsequent year 

 the lambs have been of two kinds one preserving the character of 

 the ancient race, with the curled elastic wool, only a little longer and 

 finer than in the ordinary merinos ; the other resembling the rams 

 of the new breed, some of which retained the large head, long neck, 

 narrow chest, and long flanks of the abnormal progenitor, whilst 

 others combined the ordinary and better formed body, with the fine 

 silky wool. M. Graux, profiting by the partial resumption of the 

 normal type of the merino in some of the descendants of the mal- 

 formed original variety, at length succeeded, by a judicious system of 

 crossing and interbreeding, in obtaining a flock, combining the long 

 silky fleece with a smaller head, shorter neck, broader flanks, and 

 more capacious chest. Of this breed the flocks have become suffi- 

 ciently numerous to enable the proprietor to sell examples for expor- 

 tation. The crossing of the Beauchamp variety with the ordinary 

 merino has also produced a valuable quality of wool, known in France 

 as the Mauchamp Merino. 



The fine silky wool of the pure Mauchamp breed is remarkable for 

 its qualities, as combining wool, owin^ to the strength as weU as the 



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length and fineness of the fibres. It is found of great value by the 

 maufacturers of Cashmere shawls, being second only to the true 

 Cashmere fleece in the flexible delicacy of the fabric, and of particu- 

 lar utility when combined with the Cashmere wool, in imparting to 



