350 REARING AND FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 



and the fibres of the wool, sharing in the general weakness and 

 derangement, was the more readily detached from the skin.* 



Some authors have imagined that the production of wool 

 was confined exclusively to sheep; but practical men, however, 

 know that there is a large class of animals on whom, at some 

 season of the year at least, wool is found. The under hair of 

 some goats, is not only finer than the fleece of some goats, 

 but has the crisped appearance of wool it is in fact wool, but 

 of different qualities in different breeds. On many species of 

 the deer (undomesticated) wool is found at the roots of the hair. 

 Fine and valuable wool is produced on the yak (ox) of Tar- 

 tary and the musk-ox. A species of animal between the 

 antelope and the ox, the gnoo, has mixed with, and filling up 

 the interstices between the hair, a considerable quantity of 

 wool. The camel has wool at the base of its long hair. The 

 hare^ the rabbit, the beaver, and many other fur clad animals 

 bear upon them a variable quantity of wool. 



// is supposed that the external coat of the first sheep 

 was probably hair, and that it has been brought to its present 

 state or condition by change of climate, careful and attentive 

 culture, the kind and quantity of nutriment, and other circum- 

 stances. This seems to be the opinion of Dr. ANDERSON, Sir 

 JOSEPH BANKS, and Mr. FLINT. If they are correct and we 

 see no good and sufficient reason to doubt the change from hair 

 to wool must have been gradual. The selection of those ani- 

 mals for breeding, which yielded the finest wool in the greatest 

 quantity, was no doubt an object of moment to the early shep- 

 herdsan adherence to this, would, in the course of time, have 

 produced a breed bearing wool only. 



The Yolk. The filament of the wool has scarcely pushed itself through 

 the pore of the skin, than it has to penetrate another and singular substance, 

 which, from its adhesiveness and colour is called the YOLK; it abounds about 

 the breast and shoulders, the very parts that produce the best and most abun- 

 dant wool and in proportion as it extends, in any degree over other parts, 

 the wool is there improved. The quantity varies in the different breeds the 

 southern sheep have a sufficiency of it both for the production of wool, and to 

 guard them from the inclemency of the weather. It is more abundant on the 

 true merino than any other breed. Where there is a deficiency of yolk, the 

 fibre of the wool is dry and harsh, and weak, and the whole fleece becomes 

 thin and hairy. Where the natural quantity of it is found, the wool is soft 

 and oily, and plentiful and strong. In northern districts where the cold is in- 

 tense, and the yolk of wool is deficient to shield them from the weather, a sub- 

 stitute for it is sought by smearing the sheep with a mixture of tar and oil, or 

 butter, eleven parts of oil or butter to one of tar. Sheep Husbandry, p. GO.t 



* History of the Sheep, Farmer's Series, p. 64. 



t This process of smearing will answer to some extent where the climate is 

 dry; but where it is moist, and the rains are frequent and heavy, it will not 

 answer, and should never be attempted. A gentleman of great respectability, 

 whose flock of sheep numbered more than seven thousand, informed the Edi- 

 tor of this work, that he tried the experiment on about one thousand of his 



