FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 125 



the other parts of the body and limbs should be 

 densely covered with wool of as uniform length as is 

 attainable. It is a specially fine characteristic to see 

 it of full length on the belly, forehead, cheeks, and 

 on the legs as far down as the knees and hocks. + 



The wool should stand at right angles to the sur- 

 face, except on the inside of the legs and on the scro- 

 tum ; it should present a dense, smooth, even surface 

 externally, dropping apart nowhere ; and the masses 

 of wool between those natural cracks or divisions 

 which are always seen on the surface, should be of 

 medium diameter. If they are too small, they indi- 

 cate a fineness of fleece which is incompatible with its 

 proper weight; if too large, they indicate coarse, 

 harsh wool.* 



The good properties of wool are too well understood 

 to require many words. Length is no longer an ob- 

 jection to the finest staple, as it once was.f The 

 maximum, both of thickness and length, cannot be 

 attained on the same animal, and the object of the 

 breeder should be to produce that particular combi- 

 nation or co-existence of these properties which will 

 give the heaviest fleece. 



* Mr. Fleichmann gives the G-erman standard of their diameter at 

 one-sixteenth of an inch. I should say one-quarter of an inch was 

 quite small enough for the American Merino. Viewed very closely, 

 these masses are not, in many high bred American Merinos, strictly 

 flat on the surface, but slightly butroidal, each tuft composing it hav- 

 ing a rounded end. Pointed ends, particularly if their extremities are 

 curled or twisted, and have a hairy appearance, indicate thinness and 

 unevenness of fleece. 



f The long fine wools, say two inches and over, are now manufac- 

 tured into delaines, &c. ; and as already said, broadcloths are not 

 made in our country. 



