176 STOKING WOOL. 



purposes as sheared wool, and "dead wool" is apt to be 

 inferior in various particulars.* Putting unwashed tags into 

 washed fleeces is also fraudulent. If as well washed as the 

 wool, it is not fraudulent, for they are parts of the same 

 fleeces.f Breech wool simply discolored by dung may enter 

 the fleece, but all respectable flock-masters should take good 

 care that no lumps or masses of dung are accidentally rolled 

 up in it. Locks wet with urine should be dried in the sun 

 before being done up in the fleece. It is not a fraud to put 

 the hairy shank wool in the fleece, but it is unworkmanlike. 

 It is fraudulent to sell fleeces burred to any extent, unless 

 the buyer is distinctly put on his guard. All such fleeces, 

 however much or little burred, should be put by themselves, 

 and the buyer invited to open them.J 



STORING WOOL. Wool should be stored in a clean, dry 

 room, into which neither dust, vermin nor insects can obtain 

 entrance. Both of the latter are very fond of building nests 

 in it. A north light is the best one to show wool in. If 

 there is room for it, the fleeces should be piled up neatly 

 and regularly in walls, with alleys between, so that a large 

 proportion of them can be seen by the purchaser without 

 disturbing their arrangement. Fleeces of the same lot or 

 flock should be piled promiscuously, or divided into lots 

 according to quality. If the want of room or other circum- 

 stances require the wool to be piled in a large, compact 

 mass, it is not only for the character but even often for the 

 immediate interests of the seller to place a full proportion of 

 the inferior fleeces in sight. Few persons buy without 

 opening the pile somewhat, and he who opens it and finds 

 that it has been "faced" with the best fleeces, is apt to 

 overestimate the inferiority of that which remains unseen. 



It is a common but erroneous idea, that wool continues to 

 gain in weight for long periods after being stored. It does 

 so for a short time : at any rate it has where I have seen the 

 fact tested; -but every wool merchant knows that in the 

 course of a year it loses several per cent, by the evaporation 

 of yolk and moisture. 



* When the sheep die of diseases it is apt to be uneven, jointed, weak, harsh 

 and unelastic. 



t And the buyer is a gainer by their being washed separately, because, being 

 severed from the sheep, they receive no yolk after washing. 



J However badly wool is burred, not one is usually visible ou the outside of fleece 

 when it is well done up in a press. 



Especially rats mice &nd bumble-bees. 



