CHAPTER XXVI. 



BRITISH WOOLS. 



The tendency to produce crossbred wools in our Australian 

 Colonies, to which special attention was drawn in the columns 

 of The Bradford Observer some ten or fifteen years ago, is a tendency 

 not confined to the Colonies it must always have been a potent 

 influence at home as well as abroad, and has undoubtedly affected 

 the types of English wools produced in a very marked degree. 

 The change in Australia from the small-bodied, fine-woolled Merinos 

 to the larger-bodied, comparatively coarse-woolled crossbreds, 

 was incident upon the development of the frozen mutton trade ; 

 at home any such change is principally dependent upon wool 

 values. When Blackface wool was down at 3d. to 4d., and other 

 wools were depreciated in like proportion, the farmer's mind was 

 a blank so far as wool was concerned. Sheep were bred for mutton 

 only, and the wool was not regarded even as of secondary con- 

 sideration. The wool factor among British sheep farmers would be 

 of even less importance than it actually is, were it not for the 

 importance which purchasers of sheep for export place upon stud 

 sheep being well woolled. Purchasers of Romney Marsh stud 

 sheep, for example, look for a sheep heavily fringed and with 

 much leg-wool, whereas the Bradford wool merchant would prefer 

 a fleece unfringed and clean cut, as, for example, in the case of 

 the Border-Leicester. The American purchaser of stud sheep 

 is obviously going to ignore no single factor, and he consequently 

 takes carefully into consideration the wool factor, and gets every 

 possible advantage. With wool at present-day prices, and in 

 view of the possibility of a total reversing of marketing conditions 

 incident upon under-production rather than over-production, 

 the British farmer will do well to take into account wool values. 

 Two Types of British Wools. The many and varied classes of 

 British wools of to-day may most conveniently be studied under 

 the two headings Long-wools and Short- or Down-wools. The 

 typical example of the Long-wool class is the wool upon the Lincoln 

 or Leicester sheep, while the typical example of the Short- or Down- 

 wool class is the wool upon the Southdown sheep. The differences 



