86 WOOL. 



which formed the greater part of it; Secondly, A small 

 quantity of potash; Thirdly, A perceptible quantity of 

 acetate of potash; Fourthly, Lime, whose state of combina- 

 tion he was unacquainted with ; Fifthly, An atom of muriate 

 of potash ; Sixthly, An animal oil, to which he attributed the 

 peculiar odour of the yelk. 



The yelk is alkaline, and dissolves in water like soap, so 

 that a fleece containing much of it is readily washed in 

 water. Shepherds know that if they wash a flock of sheep 

 in a pool, the first animals immersed are not cleaned so 

 rapidly nor so thoroughly as those that are placed in the 

 water after a considerable amount of the yelk has been 

 mixed with it. 



The fleece varies considerably amongst different breeds of 

 sheep, and a classification of the breeds has been adopted, 

 based on the varying length of the wool. Thus we have 

 ' long-woolled/ ' short- woolled/ and ' intermediate/ 



Though we take the character of wool as the basis of a 

 distinction in breeds of sheep, they are found to differ much 

 in feeding qualities. Mr Lawes made an elaborate investi- 

 gation into this subject, " comparing Hampshire and Sussex 

 Downs, Cotswolds, Leicesters, cross-bred wethers, and cross- 

 bred ewes, giving forty of each kind oil-cake, hay, and swedes 

 during five or six months, and weighing food and increase ; 

 and the following, stated generally, are the results arrived 

 at: 



" Of the six lots experimented upon, the Cotswolds gave 

 by far the largest average weekly increase per head ; indeed 

 about half as much more than either the Sussex, Leicester, 

 or cross-bred sheep, and nearly one-fourth more than the 

 Hampshires, which were the second in order of rate of in- 

 crease per head per week. 



" Leaving the point of the amounts of food consumed, per 



