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The woolflaplers and clothiers efleem it an im- 

 provement if the wool be thicker, fhorter, finer, Icfs 

 breach, fewer flitch hairs, no black wool, and a fmall 

 belly lock. 



The ftufF manufa^urer praifes the wool that is 

 long, clear, ftrong, fine flaple, and in good proof, 

 becaufe then he will have more worded in a dozen, 

 and fewer pinnels. 



The noblemen and gentlemen farmers form ideas 

 in their own minds, and when their fchemes accord 

 with thofe ideas they are called " improvements,'* 

 whether in reality or not, as many inflances might 

 be given in proof. Yoke in wool feems to be the 

 infpiffated perfpiration of the animal, but not fweat, 

 for that is watery and faltifli, which would corrode 

 the ikin of the animal, as we experience in the water 

 running from the eyes or nofe, excoriating where- 

 ever it runsj but the yoke feems to be of an oily 

 nature, eafily mifcible with water, and will fcour al- 

 mofl as well as foap. The quantity, at a medium, 

 of Hereford, Shropfliire, Suffex, Wilts, is about 

 half the weight of a yolky fleece; weighs 3lbs. ; the 

 yoke in that fleece will be near li-lb. which is tlie 

 cuftomary allowance to the wool-buyer; if any flieep 

 has efcaped wafliing, and is fliorn in the yoke, the 

 farmer fometimes orders fuch fleece to be hard-wafli- 

 cd, which does much harm, as it mixes the fine and 

 the coarfe together, fo that they are with great dif- 

 ficulty afterwards feparated from each other; and 



fome 



