68 



NEW ENGLAND f^ARMER. 



From ilefs' Encyclopedia. 



WOOL. 



The distinction between wool and hair is 

 rather arbitrary than natural, consisting in the 

 greater or less degrees of softness, and pliabili- 

 ty of the fibres. When Ihey possess these pro- 

 perties so far as to admit of their being spun 

 and woven into a texture sufficiently pliable to 

 be used as an article of dress, they are called 



degree of luxury or refinement exists, or has 

 once prevailed. This is a strong presunnptivc 

 proof that such wool was originally obtained by 

 a careful and long continued attention to the se- 

 lection of those sheep which produce the finest 

 and most valued fleeces. 



Angora, the ancient Ancyra, the former seat 

 of arts and manufactures, still retains its breed 

 of tine TCooled animals, among which the goat 

 at the present time produces a fleece nearly 



■wool The eradations between wool and hairi equal to silk in lustre and fineness ; and the cat 



"„ . . f. . _;! 1,1 ti.. ,. ,1 , .-,■. ._i 1 Cr^« 



on the skins of some animals are often too mi- 

 nute to admit of accurate distinction, The 

 fleeces of many sheep contain fibres so hard 

 and coarse, that they may most properly be 

 called hair ; and some hairy animals produce on 

 some parts of their skins fibres possessing all 

 the properties of wool; even in fleeces from 

 the sheep, we may sometimes observe the very 

 same fibre to he a coarse hair at one end, and 

 at the other end a comparatively soft wool. — 

 The power of words, when inaccurately appli- 

 ed in retarding the progress of improvement, 

 may frequently be traced in the most common 

 occurrences of life, and we are persuaded it 

 has had no inconsiderable effect in this instance, 

 in preventing the cultivation of wool on the 

 skins of other animals besides sheep. No one 

 will deny that it is impossible to produce wool 

 on the back of the os or the ass, if we restrict 

 the terra wool to the fleece of the sheep ; but 

 if liy wool we mean a soft fine hair, possessing 

 all the projierties which render it suitable to be 

 spun, woven and fulled so as to make cloth, the 

 oxen of Thibet and the asses of Chili do pro- 

 duce, and have for centuries produced such 

 wool. Many of the oxen even in Great Britain 

 have soft wooly tufts of hair on some parts of 

 their skins, and if such cattle were selected, 

 and the breed cultivated, it is probable we 

 might obtain from them a valuable addition to 

 the materials on which national industry might 

 be profitably employed. 



Sheep's wool appears to be the product of 

 cultivation. We know of no wild animal which 

 resembles the wool-bearing sheep. The argali, 

 from which all the varieties of sheep are sup- 

 posed to be derived, is covered with short hair, 

 at the bottom of which, close to the skin, there 

 is a softer hair or down. This is not peculiar 

 to the argali ; almost all quadrupeds inhabiting 

 cold climates are covered in the same manner 

 with a soft hair or down, which is protected by 

 a longer and coarser hair. By removal to a 

 temperate climate, or when placed under the 

 fostering care of man, and protected from the 

 inclemencies of the weather and supplied reg- 

 ularly with food, the coarse long hair falls ofl, 

 and the animal retains only the softer and short- 

 er hair or wool, it is also observed that Euro- 

 jiean sheep, removed to tropical climates, and 

 much exposed, soon become languid and sickly, 

 and lose their fleece, which is succeeded by a 

 covering of coarse short hair. Sheep in ex- 

 posed situations in Europe often produce short 

 coarse white hairs, called kemps, intermixed 

 with the finer wool ; on removal to a warmer 

 situation, and to a richer pasture, the coarse 

 hairs fall ofl", and do not grow again. These 

 facts are sufficient to prove the elTect of culti- 

 vation on the fleece; and it must be observed 

 that sheep's wool of a good quality is never 

 found hut in those countries which have been 

 the seats of the arts, and whure a considerjble 



-ind the rabbit of that district yet produce fine 

 long wool. Damascus, and the other ancient cit- 

 ies of Asia Minor, preserve in their vicinity the 

 traces of the former cultivation of fine-wooled 

 animals. The Tarentine fine woolcd sheep, so 

 much valued by the Greeks and Romans, were 

 obtained from Asia Minor, and were on that ac- 

 count sometimes called Asiana;. It is hiohlv 



progeny with a fine wooled ram. eci n! in the 

 first in qnalitv, tht' fleece of the score ami cross 

 will approach (liree-lourths to the fineness of 

 the first, and in a few crosses more will be 

 brought to an equal quality. If we state it nu- 

 merically, and sujipose the wool of the e^ve to 

 be twice as coarse as that of the ram, or as 

 320 10 160, the first cross will have the fibre 

 reduced to 240, the second to 200, the third to 

 180, the fourth to 170, the fifth to 165, the 

 sixth to 162|, which to all practical purposes 

 may be regarded as equal to the first numlier. 

 This ratio of approximation may be «taled as 

 correct on a large scale of experiment, if ive 

 breed with a fine wooled ewe and a coarse 

 woolcd ram, the series would be reversed, and 

 in a few generations all vesliges of the fine 

 wooled r.'.ce would be extinct. The ancient 

 Roman-, in the time of Columella, seem to have 



probable that those sheep came originally from been t'ullv aware of the etiecis of breed on the 

 the more eastern seals of luxury,' where the ; finPO''*'* "I" 'he wool, and as much as 200/. ster- 

 soft fleeces are now grown, of which the shawls I ling was pail for a line wooled ram. 

 and cloths of India are now fabricated. When a flock of fine wooled sheep are once 



In countries where manufactures have once ' form mI, (hey can only be kept pure by selecting 

 flourished, their effects continue for a long time i and piesprvip? the finest woole.l rams, and most 

 visible in the race of sheep, which still remain ! carefully avoldina- all iiilermixlure with sheep 

 there. Even in the present condition of the i from coarser wooled flocks that may exist in 

 fleeces from Barbarv, and the adjoining states,, the country. Were this neglected, the quality 

 the experienced eye may perceive the vestiges ' of the wool will soon be debased. But suppos- 

 of a fine wooled race of sheep, but greatlv de-'ing all Ibe flocks in a country were of the fine 

 generated by utter neglect, in a climate nntu-1 wooled race, accidental varieties of coarse 

 rally unfavourable to' the production of fine 1 "onlnj sheep will occur among them, or of 

 wool. In Sicily and the southern part; of Ita- 1 sheep having fleeces intermixed with coarse 

 ly, the remains of the ancient Tarentine breed | hair. If these be not carefully examined and 

 preserve to the present day a race of fine wool- ! removal, the wool will jleleriorale, and more 

 ed sheep, but greatly degenerated by neglect. 'so where the climate is variable, and the sheep 

 In Portugal the fine wooled sheep retain more 'are exposed to great and sudden vicissitudes of 

 of their original purity, but still much neglect- temperature. 



ed. In Spain attention to the growth of fine I What has been stated may suffice to explain 

 wool appears never to have been entirely lost i the circumstance of fine wooled breeds of 

 sight of, and it is here that the race of fine sheep being found in the vicinity of present or 

 wooled sheep exist in the highest degree of ancient manufiictories, or where they have been 

 perfection, though, as we shall afterwards state, transported from such .listricts. Wherever fine 

 probably inferior in some important qualities wooled sheep are neglected by man, the wool 

 to the o'riginal Tarentine race. Some writers becomes either coarse, or intermixed with 

 have asserted that fine wool is the result of cli- coarse hairs ; the latter is the case fn the Shet- 

 mate and food ; but tliis is not the fact, though bind isle.s, and in countries where the arts and 

 we admit that both have some influence on the manufactures have been entirely destroyed, and 

 quality of wool. It is the breed alone that pri- ignorant barbarians have succeeded as the pos- 

 marily determines the fineness of the fleece ; sessors of (he soil. 



this has been ably demonstrated by the experi-' Most ancient writers on wool, and even many 

 ments of Lord Somerville, Dr, Parry of Bath, 1 modern, seem not to be aware of any difi'erence 

 and others in this country, and bv e.xperiments in wools, except the fineness or coarseness of 

 on a larger scale in Sweden, Deiimark, Saxony i the fibre ; but the length of the fibre consti- 

 and France. j tutes a more important distinctive character. — 



It has been ascertained by Mr. Bakewell of. Long wool, or what is called combing wool, dif- 

 Dishley, in Leicestershire, that the form of an- fers more from short or clothing wool, in the 



uses to which it is applied, and the mode of 

 manufacture than flax from cotton. 



.Sheep's wool may, therefore, be divided into 

 two kinds, short wool or clothing wool, and long 

 or combing wool ; each of these kinds may be 

 subdivided into a variety of sorts, accorduig to 

 their degrees of fineness. This process is the 

 proper labour of the wool sorter. 



Short wool, or clothing wool, may vary in 

 length from one to three or four inches; it it 

 be longer it requires to be cut or broken, to 



imals might be changed by selecting such as 

 had any remarkable peculiarities, and continu- 

 ing to breed from ibem for a few generations, 

 when a new race is established, and in which 

 these peculiarities continue permanent. It has 

 been ascertained by careful observations, both 

 by cattle breeders and physiologists, that in pro- 

 ducing a new breed from two varieties of the 

 same species, the female has more influence 

 oyer the form of the progeny than the male ; 

 but with respect to wool the case is rever.sed, ^, 



the quality of the fleece depending more on!prep:>re it for the further processes of cloth 

 the sire than the dam. Beginning to breed manufacture. Short or clothing wool is always 

 from a coarse-wooled ewe and a pure fine wool-' carded or broken upon an instrument with fine 

 id ram, the produce of the first cross will have' short teeth by which the fibres are opened 

 a fleece approaching one halt to the fineness of : 'od spread in every direction, and the fabrics 

 that of the ram ; atid coutinuing to cross this i made from it are subjected to the process of 



