9S5 



WOODY FIBRE. 



WOOL. 



036 



Forest Laws. The powers and authorities belonging to the offices of 

 wardens, chief-justice, and justices in eyre (which were abolished upon 

 the termination of the then existing interests by 57 Geo. III., c. 61), 

 are vested in the first commissioner (10 Geo. IV., c. 50, s. 95) ; and 

 the commissioners are also empowered to mate compensation to parties 

 for old encroachments made upon the royal forests where they have 

 been in uninterrupted possession for ten years (Id., 8. 96). 



The rerderera of the royal forests are also required to make inquiry 

 aa to all unlawful inclosures, encroachments, &c., in their courts of 

 attachment, and may impose fines upon the offenders (Id., s. 100), who 

 may however be proceeded against by the ordinary course of law 

 i. The verderers may appoint regarders, under-foresters and 

 other officers of the forests and courts (s. 101), and may inquire into 

 their conduct, and fine them for neglect of duty (s. 102). Other 

 penalties may be recovered before a justice of the peace (s. 104) ; and 

 all such fines and penalties are to be applied to the expenses relating 

 to the forests (s. 105). 



An to the general revenue arising from the letting, &c., of the crown 

 lands, the commissioners are directed to pay in the moneys received by 

 them, to a proper account with the Bank of England and Ireland re- 

 spectively (10 Geo. IV., c. 50, ss. 117, 118) and the chartered banks of 

 Scotland (} & 4 Will. IV., c. 69, s. 17) ; and the annual income (after 

 certain deductions) is to be carried to the consolidated fund (10 Geo. 

 IV., c. 50, s. 113; & 4 Will. IV., c. 69, s. 16). The transfer of the 

 revenue arising from the crown lands to the consolidated fund is how- 

 ever the subject of a special arrangement between the crown and the 

 subjects, terminating with the life of the sovereign in whose reign it 

 U made. 



The 1 Geo. I V. , c. 50, contains some provisions peculiar to Ireland. 

 Leases, grants, &c., of any of the small branches of the royal revenue 

 (s. 128), and the powers appertaining to the chancellor and council of 

 the Duchy of Lancaster (s. 130), are exempted from its operation. 



I'll-- real property of the crown may bo thus classified : 



1 . Honours, manors, and hundreds, not in lease. 



-'. Other lands in the occupation of the crown, either for the per- 

 sonal convenience of the sovereign or for the public service. 



:!. !'"]< -t-, chaces, and wa 



4. Lands, tenements, and hereditaments, held of the crown by lease. 

 : a farm rents, issuing out of lands, tenements, and heredita- 

 ments, held of the crown in fee-simple. 



The second claw comprises the following n iyal palaces and houses : 

 Buckingham Palace ; St. James's Palace; Windsor Castle ; the pal .ices 

 <>f Hampton Court, Kensington, and Whitehall ; the King's House at 

 Winchester ; the Palace of Greenwich (converted into a hospital for 

 seamen) ; Somerset House (used as public offices) ; the Xew Palace of 

 niuster, including the houses of parliament, Westminster Hall. 

 and courts of law. The following palaces and buildings have been 

 pulled down and then" sites used for other purposes : Carlton House ; 

 the Mews ; Newmarket Palace. The following parks are also included 

 in this c! i.--i : St. Jnni'.'s''. Hyde, Bngshot, l!u-: -iwich, Hamp- 



nirt, Kew Gardens, Richmond, and Windsor. This class is now 

 under the supervision of the Board of Works mentioned below. 



In the third class are included not only the royal forests which (have 

 preserved their jura rfijaiia, but several nominal forests and chaces, 

 warrens, wastes, &c. The following is a list of the real forests : In 

 Berks, Surrey, and Wilts, Windsor Forest ; in Essex, Epping Forest ; 

 in (iloucestershire, the Forest of Dean; in Hampshire, Bere Forest, 

 New Forest, and the Forest of Woolmer and Alice Holt. 



In 1851 the offices were finally separated, and to the Board of Public 

 Works and Buildings, and to the officers of this board, was consigned 

 the important task of providing for the i>eople public walks and access 

 national buildings and collections. The duty of the state in this 

 nspect has only been recognised of late years, and perhaps we owe it 

 to our intercourse with the continent, and especially with France, that 

 it has been at all acknowledged. Fifty years ago Hyde Park and Ken- 

 sington Garden* were the only public places of recreation open to the 

 crowded and hard-worked population of London ; since then, beside 

 the improvements in those two places, and the formation of new streets 

 in those parts of the metropolis of which the land either 

 belongs to the crown or h.is been purchased by parliament for public 

 improvements, there have been opened the large parks and gardens of 

 St. James's Park, the Regent's Park, and Primrose Hill, at the west 

 and north ; the Victoria Park at the north-east ; and Kennington Park 

 and I !atUTM Park at the south-west of London. The palace and 

 grounds of Hampton Court have been repaired and adorned, and the 

 collection of pictures has been arranged and enlarged; and Kew Gar- 

 dens have been enlarged, filled with the rarest and choicest plants and 

 (lowers, and improved by the addition of magnificent conservatories 

 and a new museum, and both Hampton Court and Kew Gardens have 

 been thrown open gratuitously to the public. In Kensington Gardens 

 an Italian garden has been laid out with fountains, statuary, and 

 :iich though not of very remarkable excellence or originality, 

 are at least superior to anything of the kind hitherto given to the 



JODY F1BKK. [LK.Nix.] 



WooL. Th>: present article will be devoted to the SHEEP with re- 

 ference to its wool-producing properties, and as the subject of the art of 

 the grazier. The natural history of sheep is given under Ovi:.f, in 



XAT. HIST. Div. The treatment of the fleece when removed from the 

 animal is spoken of under WOOL AND THE WOOL TRADE : see also 

 WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE. 



The sheep belongs to the class mammalia ; to the order rtimtnantia, 

 with four stomachs, and the organs of digestion disposed for chewing 

 the cud ; to the tribe capridie, with horns persistent, and placed on 

 aa osseous nucleus; and to the genus ovlt, with or without horns, 

 but these when present uniformly taking, to a greater or less degree, 

 a lateral and spiral direction. The forehead of the sheep is arched, 

 and protruded before the base of the horns ; there are no lachrymal 

 ducts, the nostrils are lengthened and oblique, and terminate without 

 a muzzle ; there is no beard properly so called, the ears are small, and 

 the legs slender. The hah- is of two kinds, one hard and close, 

 and the other woolly the wool preponderating in proportion as the 

 animal is domesticated. The sheep is principally distinguished from 

 the goat by his convex forehead, by his spiral horns not projecting 

 posteriorly, and more especially, and that in proportion to the care 

 which is bestowed upon him, by the preponderance of wool over the 

 hair, with which, in despite of every effort, the Cashmere goat is 

 covered. 



Different names are given to the sheep, according to its sex and age. 

 The male is called a ram or tup. After weaning he is said to be a hoy, 

 a hixjytt, or hfxjjercl, a lamlj-hoy, or tup-hog, or ley ; and if castrated, a 

 /' >?. After shearing, and when he is probably a year or a year 

 and a half old, he is called a shear hoy, or thearliiig, or dlnmunt, or tup ; 

 and when castrated, a thearling wether. After the second shearing, he 

 is a I wo t/iear ram, or tup, or wether. At the expiration of another 

 year, he is a three shear ram, ic. 



The female is a cm or i/im/ner lamb until weaned, and then a gimmer 



or eice hoy or tty. After being shorn, she is a yhearliny etce or fjiiiii/icr, 



or t/teare or double-toothed ewe; and after that, a tim or three or four 



'c or theate. The age of the sheep is reckoned, not from the 



period of their being dropped, but from the first shearing. 



The teeth give certain indications as to the age. The sheep has no 

 incisor teeth in the upper jaw ; but there is a dense elastic cushion or 

 pad, and the herbage, firmly held between the front teeth in the lower 

 jaw and this cushion, is partly bitten and partly torn asunder. The 

 sheep has the whole of the incisor teeth by the time that he is a month 

 old, and he retains them until the fourteenth or sixteenth month. 

 They then begin to diminish in size, and are displaced. The two 

 central ones are first shed, and the permanent ones supply their place, 

 and attain their full growth when the animal is two years old. Between 

 two and three, the next pair are changed ; the third at three years 

 old ; and at four, the mouth is complete. After this there is no 

 certain rule, until, two years more having passed, the teeth one by one 

 become loosened and are loot. At six or seven years of age the mouths 

 of the ewes should bc< occasionally examined, and the loose teeth re- 

 moved. By good pasture and good nursing in the winter, they may 

 produce lambs until they have reached the ninth or tenth year, when 

 they begin rapidly to decline. Some favourites have lingered on to the 

 fifteenth or sixteenth year ; but the usual and the most profitable 

 method is to fatten and dispose of the ewes when they are five or six 

 years old, and to supply their places by some of the best shearling ewes. 



The rings at the base of the horns ail'ord very imperfect indications 

 of the age of the sheep. Even when untouched, they are little to be 

 depended upon. 



The history of the British sheep will be most naturally divided 

 according to the quantity and quality of the wool of the different 

 breeds, and the quality of the flesh. The covering of the original 

 I sheep consisted of a mixture of hair and wool ; the wool being short 

 and tine and forming an inner coat, and the hair of greater length, 

 i projecting through the wool, and constituting an external covering. 

 i When the sheep are neglected or exposed to a considerable degree of 

 cold, this degeneracy is easily traced. On the Devonshire moors, the 

 mountains of Wales, and the highlands of Scotland, the wool is deterio- 

 rated by a considerable admixture of hair. Even among the South- 

 downs, the Leicesters, and the Ryelauds, too many temps occasionally 

 ' the value of the fleece. It is only by diligent cultivation that 

 the quantity of hair has been generally diminished, and that of wool 

 1 increased in our best breeds. 



The filaments of wool taken from a healthy sheep present a beauti- 

 i fully polished and even glittering appearance. That of the neglected 

 or half-starved animal exhibits a paler hue. This is one valuable in- 

 dication by which the wool-stapler is enabled to form an accurate 

 opinion of the value of the fleece. The mixture of hair in the wool 

 can often be detected by close examination with the naked eye, but 

 most readily by the assistance of a microscope. 



Among the qualities which influence the value of the wool, fineness, 

 and the uniformity of that fineness in the single fibre and in the 

 collected fleece have hitherto held a first place. This fineness, however, 

 differs materially in different parts of the fleece. It prevails on the 

 neek, the shoulders, the ribs, and the back. It is less on the legs, 

 thighs, and haunch, and still coarser on the neck, the breast, the belly, 

 and the lower part of the legs. The fineness of the wool is con- 

 nidi-rably inlluenced by the temperature. Sheep in a hot climate yield 

 a comparatively coarse wool ; in a cold climate, they carry a closer but 

 a warmer fleece. 



The fineness of the fleece is also much influenced by the kind of 



