AMERICAN INDUSTRIES SINCE COLUMBUS. 177 



Fig. 1. A Merino Ram. Weight, 192 pounds ; weight 

 of fleece, 35 pounds. 



Tlie whole object of primitive living may be said to have been 

 compassed in the domestication of the sheep. His pelt and wool 

 were the covering for man's nakedness, and his flesh was his food. 

 Thus the sheep was the most important of all the instrumentali- 

 ties which contributed 

 to the evolution of the 

 primitive man, by slow, 

 uncertain steps, from a 

 state of barbarism akin 

 to that of the beasts, into 

 the first dawn of civiliza- 

 tion. The evolution has 

 been accompanied by a 

 scientific attention to the 

 breeding of the sheep, 

 with a view to increasing 

 its wool-bearing powers 

 and improving the quali- 

 ty of the fiber, not surpassed, if indeed it has been equaled, in the 

 care or training of any other animal, and achieving results com- 

 mensurate with the effort. The history of this evolution is hardly 

 less interesting than that of the manufacture itself. 



Wool is the only fiber which possesses the felting property in 

 any considerable degree. This quality of felting imparts to 

 woolen fabrics a firmness, an elasticity, a strength, a warmth, 



and a durability altogether 

 lacking in the products of any 

 other fiber. There is no fiber 

 used in textile manufacturing 

 which has an affinity for dye 

 equal to that of wool. Aniline 

 colors may be fixed on this 

 material by simply bringing 

 the fibers into contact with 

 the liquid containing the col- 

 oring matter. Where rich- 

 ness of effect is desired, and 

 a fabric sought which shall 

 possess all the characteristics 

 of artistic development, wool 

 remains, as in the days of the 

 lost effulgent royal purple, 

 the unrivaled material of the artisan. From the pedestal of su- 

 premacy where these characteristics placed it wool can never be 

 dethroned. 



Again, the manufacture of wool is the most laborious, the most 



VOL. XXXIX. 14 



-Magnified Fibers of (A) Silk, (B) 

 Wool), and (C) Cotton. 



