THE STORY OF WOOL. 



Professor G. E. Day. 





The next time ycu visit a fall fair, be sure you do not come away 

 without gfoing- to see the sheep. If you are fortunate enoug'h to 

 visit one of our larger fairs, such as at Toronto, London, or Ottawa, you 

 will find the sheep pens a very interesting' place. Here you will see 

 many different kinds of sheep ; some large, some medium size, and same 

 small ; some with white faces, some with brown or i>"rav 

 a^^^j) faces, and some with black faces ; some with their faces so 



covered with wool that they can scarcely see out through 

 it, and some with no wool at all on their faces ; some 

 with horns, and many with no horns, — in fact, the longer 

 you look at these beautiful creatures, the more you will 

 find to interest you There is one thing about sheep that 

 makes them look very different from all our other farm ani- 

 mals, and that is the warm coat which the}' wear. This 

 coat is so thick and so warm that the sheep can stay outside 

 in the coldest weather without minding the cold in the 

 least, while a horse, or a cow, or a pig will shiver and 

 look very uncomfortable indeed. Now, the 

 horse, cow, and pig have coats, too ; but 

 their coats are made of hair, while the 

 sheep's coat is made of w'ool, and wool 

 makes a much warmer coat than hair. 



Did you ever think of what is the differ- 

 ence between wool and hair ? If you part 

 a sheep's wool with your hands, you will 

 find that it is made up of a great number 

 of very fine wool hairs, or fibres, which 

 grow out from the skin of the sheep so 

 close together, and so long, that they form 

 a coat which the wind cannot blow through. 

 After handling the wool, } ou will find that 

 your hands are quite greasy. This grease, 

 or oil comes from the skin of the sheep, 

 and is called "yolk." It keeps the wool Fig-. 91.— Lock of 

 fibres soft and smooth, and keeps them 

 from tangling or matting together. It also 

 helps to keep out water, so that a sheep can stay out in quite a heavy 

 shower of rain without getting its coat wet through. Then, again, 

 if you look at these wool fibres closely, you will see that they are 

 not perfectly straight, but that they have a wavy appearance. In 

 some kinds of wool these weaves, or bends, in the fibre are much 

 closer together than in other kinds. Look at the two fibres shown 

 90 and qi. In the first fibre there are very few waves 



mm 



Fig-. 90.— Lock' of 

 wool, showing 

 coarse crimp. 



wool, showing 

 medium crimp. 



in 



Figs. 



while in the second the waves are close together. The finer the fibre is, 

 the more waves it has, while wool with coarse fibre has ver\' few waves. 



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