128 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



within the wool;* and when it is sufficiently abundant 

 in the fluid form to ooze constantly to the outer ex- 

 tremity, it catches and retains dust, the pollen of hay, 

 &c., and gradually inspissates into that black gummy 

 mass now so eagerly sought for by a class of Merino 

 breeders. 



Yauquelin, a celebrated French chemist, found that 

 various specimens of yolk contained about the same 

 constituents : 1. A soapy matter with a basis of pot- 

 ash, which formed a greater part of it. 2. A small 

 quantity of carbonate of potash. 3. A perceptible 

 quantity of acetate of potash. 4. Lime, whose state 

 of combination he was unacquainted with. 5. AJI 

 atom of muriate of potash. 6. An animal oil, to which 

 he attributed the peculiar odor of yolk. He found 

 the yolk of French and Spanish Merinos essentially 

 the same. 



This substance is, then, substantially a soap and 

 the usual terms of grease, oil, etc;, are not correctly 

 applied to it. It washes freely from the hands, except 

 that an unctuous feeling is left by the trace of fatty 

 matter in it. The ^ hands of shearers, kept covered 

 with it for a number of days, grow perceptibly softer 

 and whiter at every washing. 



With a few hours' previous soaking, it will wash al- 

 most entirely out of wool in soft, warmish brook 

 water, except perhaps, the external black gum. Let 

 sheep be exposed to a warm rain long enough to wet 

 through the wool, and let them then be thoroughly 



* In the fleece of the first imported French Merino I ever opened 

 not apparently a very yolky one, and quite light colored externally 

 I found some of these concretions as large as an ordinary boan 

 flattened. 



