No. 11. 



Softness and Fineness of Wool 



357 



not less than 300 bushels of grass seed. Ac- 

 cording to tlie State census of New York, 

 taken three years since, the quantity of but- 

 ter made in a year was 79,501,770 pounds. 

 This, at twelve and a half cents per pound, 

 would amount to $9,937,716. The same 

 year there were milked 999,490 cows, three- 

 fifths of which, it is supposed, were for but- 

 ter dairies, and the remainder for cheese 

 dairies. This would give, for butter 599,685 

 cows, which would probably give 500,000 

 calves; so that a large increase may be cal- 

 culated in this respect, on the amount of 

 stock kept for butter manufacture every year 

 in that State. 



The quantity of milk sold in our cities is 

 great. Some idea of it may be formed from 

 the fact that 50,000 quarts of milk daily are 

 carried on the Erie railroad, equal, including 

 the cans to sixty-three tons, not less, proba 

 bly than 15,000,000 or 16,000,000 quarts a 

 year, which did not find its way to New 

 York before the road was constructed. 



The importation of cheese into Great Brit- 

 ain is larger than that of butter. The total 

 quantity in 1846 from Europe amounted to 

 249,664 cwt., and from the United States to 

 91,901 cwt. The American cheese, how- 

 ever, is said to have some faults which need 

 to be corrected to render it acceptable to the 

 English market. These are stated by Mr. 

 Coleman to be, 1st. The softness of the rind, 

 which renders them liable to crack, and 

 which is imputed to their richness, and the 

 remedy for which is to let the cheese, when 

 taken from the press, remain in brine so 

 Btrong that it will take up no more salt for 

 four or five hours. It must not, however, 

 be kept too long in the brine, as it may re- 

 ceive injury. The second fault complained 

 of is the acid and sharp taste. This is im- 

 puted to some improper preparation of the 

 rennet, and possibly to something wrong in 

 the feed or pastures. It is also recommend- 

 ed that American cheese should be coloured 

 so as to resemble the English cheese. The 

 American butter is a poor article generally 

 there, and does not find purchasers for table 

 use, but is used to grease machinery in the 

 manufacturing districts. — Patent Reports, 



Softuess aud Fineness of Wool. 



It is not as generally known as it should 

 be, that softness is a quality of wool of much 

 consequence. When the wool buyer and 

 stapler proceed to an examination of a par 

 eel, their judgment will be materially affect- 

 ed as to its value, whether "soft in handle," 

 or otherwise. This, however, generally 

 speaking, is the result of comparative fine- 

 ness; but by no means always so, for wool 



of the same quality of fineness has not the 

 same degree of softness. There are several 

 causes to account for it, and among tliem is 

 soil; as, for instance, the chalky districts of 

 England affect the wool to such an extent 

 as to make it invariably brittle and harsh. 

 This, however, is only local. The general 

 cause of a deficiency of softness in wools of 

 the same breed, may be referred directly to 

 the condition of the sheep. It has already 

 been stated that when the animal was kept 

 in uniform good condition, the necessary 

 quantity of yolk was supplied. Now if there 

 is but little of this substance, which will 

 follow an abuse in management, the wool 

 will be less pliable and "kind to feel." 

 Therefore it may be set down as a univer- 

 sal rule, that wool owes much of its softness 

 to the presence of a sufficiency of yolk. 



As a testimony how much this quality of 

 wool is appreciated by the manufacturer, it 

 is affirmed on the authority of an English 

 author, "that two parcels of sorted wool 

 being taken, possessing the same degree of 

 fineness, but the one having the soft quality 

 in an eminent degree, and the other being 

 harsh, the cloth prepared from the first, at 

 the same expense, will be worth more to the 

 manufacturer than the other, by full 20 per 

 cent." 



This term, when applied to wool, is wholly 

 comparative; various breeds of sheep pro- 

 ducing wool essentially different in quality, 

 the same breeds varying much, and all 

 breeds exhibiting qualities of wool of un- 

 equal fineness in the same fleece It is also 

 sometimes the fact that the extremity of the 

 fibre, as ascertained by the micrometer, is 

 five times greater in bulk than the centre 

 and root. 



The fibre may be considered coarse when 

 it is more than the five hundreth part of an 

 inch in diameter, and very fine when it does 

 not exceed the nine hundredth part of an 

 inch, as exhibited occasionally in choice sam- 

 ples of Saxon Merino wool. It is said there 

 are animals which have a wool underneath 

 a covering of hair, the fibre of which is less 

 than the twelve hundredth part of an inch. 

 Formerly, wool of short staple only was 

 thought by the manufacturer indispensable 

 to make a fine cloth with a close pile or nap, 

 but the improvements made in machinery 

 within a few years have superseded this con- 

 sideration, and novyf long-staple wool is most 

 valued. This in part proceeds from the fact 

 that short wools have more "dead end," pro- 

 portionally, than long; again, the new Ame- 

 rican enterprise for manufacturing muslin 

 de laines, calls for a long, tough, fine staple. 

 The Australian wools, which are of Merino 

 and Saxon blood, from the mildness of the 



