48 USES OF THE TEAZLE. 



the terminating point of which is furnished with a 

 fine hook. (See Plate 1, Fig. 4.) Many of these 

 heads are fixed in a frame ; and with this the sur- 

 face of the cloth is teased, or brushed, until all the 

 ends are drawn out, the loose parts combed off, and 

 the cloth ceases to yield impediments to the free 

 passage of the wheel, or frame, of teazles. Should 

 the hook of the chaff, when in use, become fixed in 

 a knot, or find sufficient resistance, it breaks, with- 

 out injuring or contending with the cloth, and care 

 is taken by successive applications to draw the im- 

 pediment out : but all mechanical inventions hitherto 

 made use of offer resistance to the knot; and, in- 

 stead of yielding and breaking as the teazle does, 

 resist and tear it out, making a hole, or injuring the 

 surface. The dressing of a piece of cloth consumes 

 a great multitude of teazles it requiring from 1500 

 to 000 heads to accomplish the work properly. 

 They are used repeatedly in the different stages of 

 the process; but a piece of fine cloth generally 

 breaks this number before it is finished, or we may 

 say that there is a consumption answering to the 

 proposed fineness pieces of the best kinds requiring 

 one hundred and fifty or two hundred runnings up, 

 according to circumstances. 



Our small farmers here have a vile practice of 

 picking from their turf, in the spring of the year, 

 all the droppings of their autumn and winter fed 

 cattle to carry on their arable land for the potato, 



