CHAPTER XLVII 



THE DELAINE MERINO 



The word "Delaine" is derived from two French words, de, 

 signifying of or from, and laine, meaning wool or woolen. The 

 word in the woolen trade indicates a class of wool used to make 

 fine untwilled worsted dress goods. A combing process takes 

 place, in which the fibers of wool are drawn parallel with each 

 other and spun at full length in the yarn, thus securing the full 

 strength of the fiber and 

 making the strongest and 

 most durable of woolen 

 dress goods. This was due 

 to an invention of E. R. 

 Mudge of Boston. Previ- 

 ous to this time only coarse 

 wools were combed, fine 

 wools being carded, a pro- 

 cess inferior to combing. 



Delaine Merino types 

 exist under several names, 

 these being of American 

 Merino ancestry, bred 

 mainly by selection into a 

 variety quite or nearly free 

 from folds, of the smooth- 

 bodied sort. These types 

 differ in a limited degree, being really very much alike. 



The origin of the Delaine Merino traces back to the Humph- 

 reys importation of 1802 and that of R. W. Meade about 1820. 

 From these flocks certain selections were made and types gradu- 

 ally evolved from them, breeders generally keeping in mind both 

 mutton and wool production. 



357 



FIG. 157. Camber's Model, a very choice 

 specimen of Delaine Merino ewe, bred and 

 exhibited by A. T. Gamber. This ewe was 

 first in class at the Ohio State Fair in 1905. 

 Photograph by the author 



