518 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 9 



From the last London edition of the "Complete Grazier," 



ON THE BREEDING, REARING, AND FATTEN- 

 ING OF SHEEP. 



[Continued from p. 469 Vol. III.] 

 On foreign and British wool. 



7. Super-head. — An advance upon the pre- 

 ceding sort. 



8. Picked Lock. — First made, perhaps, in 

 small quantities. 



9. Choice Lock. — Still more excellent. 



Besides these sorts, there is another recently in- 

 troduced into the list, and called Prime Lock; 

 which, as its name indicates, is the finest that can 

 possibly be obtained; and some have even gone 

 so far as to distinguish fourteen, different quali- 

 ties.* 



Till within a faw years, the finest wool manu- 



The importance of the woollen manufacture, 

 both to the commercial and laboring classes of 

 this nation, has long been felt; yet it is only with- 

 in the last forty years that the subject has been 

 scientifically considered, or any efficient measures 



have been taken in order to improve the quantity factored in this country was obtained exclusively 

 and quality of British wool. ; from Spain, and next to Spanish wool, the Eng- 



As the extent of the present work will not ad- [ Hsh sheep, at that period, indisputably furnished 

 mit of a detailed account of prejudices which are j the best commodity of the kind in Europe. Pre- 

 now daily disappearing, we propose, in the present , viously to the introduction of Spanish sheep, the 

 chapter, only to state the essential properties of finest and most esteemed sorts of British short 



wool, and concisely to notice the improvements 

 already made, together with those means which 

 experience and reason evince to be the best calcu- 

 lated for that purpose. 



The growth of wool is always completed in one 

 year, at the expiration of which it spontaneously 

 decays, and is naturally renewed. In this respect, 

 indeed, the covering of sheep bears a close resem- 

 blance to the hair of most other animals; though 

 it differs widely in the following particulars: wool 

 is considerably finer, grows more uniformly, each 

 filament growing at equal distances, and sepa- 

 rating nearly at the same time from the skin; and, 

 if not shorn in time, naturally lulling oil, being 

 succeeded annually by ashort coat of young wool. 

 Another peculiarity in wool is, the different degree 

 of thickness which prevails in various parts ol the 

 same sheep, being closer at the extremities or 

 points than at the roots, and the part that grows 

 during the winter being of a much finer quality 

 than that produced in the summer. 



Various are the names given to wool, according 



wool were the Ryeland, Dean-Forest, Mendip, 

 South-down, Wiltshire, Shetland, and Cheviot 

 fleeces: but by the judicious crossing of Merino 

 rams with the choice British sheep, particularly 

 of the Ryeland breed, wool, even of the fourth 

 descent, has been obtained, which, in point of fine- 

 ness and texture, has proved nearly equal to the 

 best Spanish. For this improvement, at that time 

 deemed of the highest importance to its agricul- 

 ture and manufactures, the British nation was in- 

 debted to the patriotic exertions of Lord Somer- 

 ville, of the British Wool Society, the Board of 

 Agriculture, and Dr. Parry, of Bath.t With the 

 same noble views, his Majesty, George III., for 

 many years previous to his' illness, annually per- 

 mitted some of his Spanish sheep to be sold at 

 reasonable prices, under the auspices of Sir Jo- 

 seph Banks; and, in many instances, allowed 

 them to be used gratuitously. 



The expectations thus raised have, however, 

 been disappointed; and the momentary advantage 

 that was gained by these crosses, has 'been whol- 



to its state or relative degree of fineness. When I ly destroyed by the superior quality of the Ger 



first shorn, it is termed a fleece; and every fleece 

 is usually divided into three kinds, viz. the prime, 

 or mother -wool, which is separated from the neck 

 and back; the seconds, or that obtained from the 

 tails and legs; and the thirds, which is taken from 

 the breast and beneath the belly. This general 

 classification of wool corresponds with the Spanish 

 method of sorting into Rafi,nos, or prime; Linos, 

 or second best; and Terceras, third, or inferior 

 sort; the initial letters of which words are usually 

 marked upon the bags when it is exported: but 

 the wool-staplers in this country distinguish not 

 less than nine different sorts that are broken out 

 of small fleeces, the names given to which prove 

 the nice discernment of the persons employed; we 

 therefore subjoin them for the information of our 

 less informed readers. 



No. 1. Is Short-coarse; and very descriptive 

 of its character. 



2. Livery, ? old sorts, into which the fleece 



3. Jlbb, 5 was formerly divided. 



4. Second. — Probably a second or better abb, 

 and the first alteration in the mode of sorting; 

 which arose either from the improvement of 

 fleeces, or in the art of breaking them. This, and 

 all the subsequent names, seem to have been in 

 regular succession of quality to the top of the 

 list. 



5. Downrighls. 

 t>. Head, or chief. 



man wools, and the low prices at which they are 

 now imported. The whole evidence before the 

 Committee of the House of Lords, appointed, in 

 1828, to inquire into the state of the wool trade, 

 goes to prove, that the wools of Bohemia and 

 Saxony have entirely superseded the British short 

 wool in the greater part of our cloth manufacture; 

 and the consequence has been, that, the value of 

 the latter has fallen below a remunerating price to 

 the grower. To this alarming fact is to be added 



* The tables inserted in this chapter show the com- 

 mon proportions of the different qualities in a fleece of 

 South-down wool. 



t The details of the various experiments, conducted 

 by the different public-spirited individuals above named, 

 being too numerous for insertion, a few only of their 

 general results can be given. Such of our readers as 

 possess leisure and inclination to observe the gradual 

 progress that has been made in this national object, will 

 be amply compensated by a perusal of Lord Sorner- 

 ville's "System, followed by the Board of Agricul- 

 ture," &.c. 8vo. 1S0O; also his Lordship's "Facts and 

 Observations on Sheep," &.e. 8vo. 1803; the second 

 volume of "Communications to the Board of Agricul- 

 ture;" Dr. Parry's "Facts and Observations on the 

 practicability of producing British Clothing Wool 

 equal to that of Spain;" and the ninth volume of the 

 "Letters and Papers of the Bath and West of England 

 Society." 



