SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



145 



tations from which constitute so large a portion of this Letter. But both 

 subsequent experience, and information derived from other sources, have 

 convinced me of the err meousness of this opinion. South-Down wool is 



SOUTH-DOWN RAM. 



essentially different from Merino wool of any grade, though the fibre in 

 some of the finest fleeces may be of the same apparent fineness with half 

 or one-quarter blood Merino. 



The following cut from Youatt,* gives the microscopic appearance, 

 says that gentleman, of a " prime specimen of picklock South-Down 

 wool," 1 being viewed as a transparent, 

 and 2 as an opaque object." The fibre 

 is -g-J^th part of an inch in diameter. 



The cups or leaves of 2 " are roughened 

 irregular, and some of the leaves have ex- 2 

 ceedingly short angles," but they are far 

 sharper, more numerous and regular (the 

 points which give wool its felting property) than in ordinary South-Down 

 wool. In the latter, the cups are rounded and have a " rhomboidal " in- 

 stead of that sharp and "hooked" character which distinguishes the Me- 

 rino and Saxon. 



South-Down wool is deficient in felting properties. It makes a " furzy, 

 hairy " cloth, and is no longer used in England, unless largely admixed 

 wifn foreign wool, even for the lowest class of cloths. 



The following testimony was given by some of the most eminent manu 

 facturers, wool-factors, staplers, and merchants of England, before the 

 Committee of the Rouse of Lords in 1828, several times previously al- 

 luded tc : t 



I See Biichoff, TO), ii. pp. 145 to 155. 



T 



