100 



WOOL. 



is long, either straight or irregularly curled, and 

 fine wool, which is regularly curled. There are 

 again many subdivisions. In Spain, the sheep are 

 sorted before the washing, then shorn, and at last 

 the wool is washed. It comes into the market 

 divided into four sorts : refina, prima, segondn and 

 tercera. The Saxon wool is also divided into four 

 sorts: electoral, prima, secvnda and tertia. To 

 sort the wool requires much practice, in order to 

 discern minute differences that are quite inappreci- 

 able by common observers. Frequently eight or 

 ten different kinds are found in a single fleece ; and 

 if the best wool of one fleece be not equal to the 

 finest sort, it is put with a second, third or fourth, 

 or a still lower class, of an equal degree of fineness 

 with it. The best English native short fleeces, 

 such as the fine Norfolk and South Down, are gene- 

 rally divided by the wool-sorter into the following 

 kinds, all varying in fineness, viz. 1. prime; 2. 

 choice ; 3. super ; 4. head ; 5. downrights ; 6. se- 

 conds ; 7. fine abb ; 8. coarse abb ; 9. livery ; 10. 

 short, coarse, or breech wool. The relative value 

 of each varies according to the greater demand for 

 coarse, fine or middle cloths. Fine Merino wool, 

 upon healthy and full-grown animals, grows within 

 a year from one to two inches, generally from one 

 and a half to two inches. As the fineness of the 

 wool is a very important quality (though softness 

 is equally so), " wool-measures" have been invent- 

 ed. One of these, that of A. C. F. Kohler and K. 

 Hoffmann, two German gentlemen, measures a 

 hundred of the fibres of the wood at once : they 

 are put into a cavity in the middle of the instru- 

 ment, and pressed by a peculiar apparatus, with a 

 weight of about three Leipsic pounds, till the maxi- 

 mum reaction of their elasticity is reached, and the 

 result is indicated, sixty times magnified, on a semi- 

 circle divided into degrees. Mr Kohler has writ- 

 ten a pamphlet on the use of this instrument, and 

 Mr Hoffmann makes them for sale in Leipsic. The 

 price of one is forty Saxon dollars. The softies 

 of the fibre, as already observed, is of great import- 

 ance. It does not depend on fineness, and consists 

 of a peculiar feel, approaching to that of silk or 

 down. The difference in the value of two pieces 

 of cloth, made of two kinds of wool equally fine, 

 but one distinguished for its softness, and the other 

 for the opposite quality, is such, that, with the 

 same process and expense of manufacture, the one 

 will be worth from twenty to twenty-five per cent, 

 more than the other. Mr Bakewell maintains that 

 the degree of softness depends principally on the 

 nature of the soil on which sheep are fed ; that 

 sheep pastured on chalk districts, or light, calcare- 

 ous soil, usually produce hard wool ; while the wool 

 of those that are pastured on rich, loamy, argillace- 

 ous soils, is always distinguished by its softness. 

 The Saxon wool is generally softer than the 

 Spanish. Hard wools are all defective in felting 

 properties. The felting property of wool is known 

 to every one. The process of hat-making, for 

 example, depends entirely upon it. The wool of 

 which hats are made is neither spun nor woven ; 

 Hut locks of it, being thoroughly intermixed and 

 compressed in warm water, cohere, and form a solid, 

 tenacious substance. Whole tribes use felted wool 

 for cloth. Cloth and woollen goods are made with 

 us from wool possessing this property : the wool is 

 carded, spun, woven, and then, being put into the 

 fulling-mill, the process of felting takes place. The 

 strokes of the mill make the fibres cohere : the 

 piece subjected to the operation contracts in length 



and breadth, and its texture becomes more compact 

 and uniform. This process is essential to the 

 beauty and strength of woollen cloth. But the 

 long wool, of which stuffs and worsted goods are 

 made, is deprived of its felting properties. This is 

 done by passing the wool through heated iron 

 combs, which take away the lamina, or feathery 

 part of the wool, and approximate it to the nature 

 of silk or cotton. Long or combing wool may vary 

 in length from three to, eight, inches. The shorter 

 combing wools are principally used for hose, and 

 are spun softer than the long combing wools ; tlie 

 former being made into what is called hard, and the 

 latter into soft worsted yarn. Short wool is used 

 in the cloth manufacture, and is, therefore, frequent- 

 ly called clothing wool. It may vary in length 

 from one to three or four inches : if it be longer, it 

 requires to be cut or broken to prepare it for the 

 manufacture. In clothing wool, the colour of the 

 fleece should always approach as much as possible 

 to the purest white ; because such wool is not only 

 necessary for cloths dressed white, but for all cloths 

 that are to be dyed bright colours, for which a clear 

 white ground is required to give a due degree of 

 richness and lustre. Some of the English fine 

 woolled sheep, as the Norfolk and South Down, 

 have black or gray faces and legs. In all such 

 sheep there is a tendency to produce gray wool on 

 some part of the body, or to produce some graj 

 fibres intermixed with the fleece, which renders the 

 wool unfit for many kinds of white goods ; for, 

 though the black hairs may be too few and minute 

 to be detected by the wool-sorter, yet, when the 

 cloth is stoved, they become visible, forming red- 

 dish spots, by which its colour is much injured. 

 The Herefordshire sheep, which have white faces, 

 are entirely free from this defect, and yield a fleece 

 without any admixture of gray hairs. The cleanli- 

 ness of the wool is an important consideration. 

 The Spanish wool, for example, is always scoured 

 after it is shorn, as stated above ; whereas the wool 

 of many other countries is only imperfectly washed 

 previously to its being shorn. In consequence of 

 which, it is said that while a pack of English cloth- 

 ing wool, of 240 pounds weight, will waste about 

 seventy pounds in the manufacture, the same quan- 

 tity of Spanish wool will not waste more than 

 forty-eight pounds. Cleanness, therefore, is an ob- 

 ject of much importance to the buyer. Whiteness 

 of fleece is of less importance in the long combing 

 than in clothing wool, provided it be free from gray 

 hairs. Sometimes, however, the fleece has a dingy 

 brown colour, called a winter stain, which is a sure 

 indication that the wool is not in a thoroughly sound 

 state. Such fleeces are carefully thrown out by 

 the wool-sorter, being suitable only for goods that 

 are to be dyed black. The fineness of heavy comb- 

 ing wool is not of so much consequence as its other 

 qualities. We have already spoken, in the article 

 Sheep, of the deterioration of British wool from 

 the raising of fine mutton. The better the 

 meat, the coarser the wool. However, whilst the 

 average weight of a fleece of the German Merino 

 breed is about two and a half to three pounds, that 

 of a fat Leicester sheep is from eight to nine pounds; 

 and thus the large fleece somewhat makes up the 

 loss of fineness by increase of weight, so that it is 

 probable, that, notwithstanding the decline in the 

 price of wool, taking into account the greater 

 weight of the carcass and the greater weight of the 

 fleece, sheep produce more at present to the British 

 farmer than at any former period. According to a 



