EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 215 



That there might be absolute fairness in securing representative fleeces of each 

 breed, the writer appealed to the secretaries of the various sheep breeders' and registry 

 associations to aid in securing the fleeces. In most instances much valuable assistance 

 was rendered. 



The weight of all fleeces is computed upon the basis of .365 days' growth. 



Fleeces number 16 to 27, inclusive, were furnished by the Michigan Agricultural Col- 

 lege. 



The remaining fleeces were furnished by the following well known breeders : 



28. H. H. Keim, Ladoga, Ind. 



29. W. C. Smith, Washington, Mich. 



30. L. B. Townsend Estate, Ionia, Mich. 

 3L L. B. Townsend Estate, Ionia, Mich. 



32. Ceorge Harding & Son, Waukesha, Wis. 



33. George Harding & Son, Waukesha, Wis. 



34. Robert Knight & Son, Marlette. Mich. 



35. Jerome Leeland, Springfield, 111. 



36. .Jerome Leeland, Springfield, 111. 



37. George C. Woodman, ]\Ianistee, Mich. 



38. Mrs. Virginia C. Meredith, Cambridge Citv, Ind. 



39. L. L. Harsh, Union City, Mich. 



40. J. J. England, Caro, Mich. 



41. George C. Woodman, Manistee, Mich. 



42. John Marshall, Cass City, Mich. 



43. Chas. Roundtree, Youngsville, Ind. 



We are indebted to E. Frank Lewis, Lawrence, Mass., for scouring the above fleeces 

 and giving us the data. 



For the benefit of those who may not understand fully what is meant by the terms 

 used in the column headed "Commercial Grade," we will make a few brief explanations. 



All domestic wools may be classified according to their quality, strength, and length 

 of staple as (1) Clothing or carding wools; (2) Combing wools; (3) Delaine wools. 



Clothing wools are short wools and incidentally of relatively fine quality. In a gen- 

 eral way all wools less than two and one-half inches in length are clothing or carding 

 wools. 



Combing wools are both long in staple and strong. INIost of the coarser long wools 

 are graded as combing wools. However, when a wool is long enough for combinar and 

 has the necessary size of fiber it may still be disqualified as a combing wool if it has been 

 poorly grown. Breaks in the fiber caused by insufficient nourishment destroy the value 

 of wools for combing purposes. 



Delaine wools are fine wools clipped from all varieties of Merinos or high grade 

 Merinos which grow wool of long, strong staple. We might say that Delaine wools 

 are combing fine wools. 



Each one of the three classes of wools above mentioned are subdivided according to 

 quality or size of fiber, as follows: 



Picklock 

 XXX 

 XX 

 X 



No. 1 or i blood 



No. 2 or f blood 



,No. 3 or i blood 



Clothing wools . 



r4 blood 

 Combing wools, kjloocl 



) Coarse or common 

 [Braid 



i Fine 

 Delaiue wools. . < Medium 

 ( Low 



Picklock is a grade that is rarely found in the markets at the present time. 

 Formerly there was quite a large quantity of this wool reaching our markets. The 

 wool from pure Saxony ^Merino sheep usually grades Picklock. XXX is also hard to 

 find. When the Saxony Merino was crossed with the common American or Spanish 

 Merino the cross-bred resulting usually produced wool grading XXX. 



