FOR MUTTON AND WOOL 117 



erally known as short-stapled or the carding wools, which 

 are used for woolen clothes, or long-stapled or combing 

 wools, which are used for worsted clothes. The long sta- 

 pled wools include the Lincoln, Leicester, Cotswold, 

 Romney j\Iarsh and Black Face or Highland. The short- 

 stapled include all the Downs (Southdown, Hampshire, 

 Suffolk, Shropshire, Oxford), — and the Cheviot and 

 Welsh. The manufacturer of woolens desires a short- 

 stapled wool, for such a wool has better felting qualities 

 and usually more serrations or spirals than the long 

 wools. In manufacturing woolens into yarns the fibers 

 are transversely disposed to the axis or length of the 

 thread. In yarns of this nature this feature 

 is termed "pile." The points projecting from 

 the center should be numerous, so that in felt- 

 ing the fabric unites and also when the cloth 

 comes to be finished it will appear on top like short 

 fur (Royal Agricultural Society Transactions, A^ol. II, 

 Second Series). On the other hand, in worsted goods, 

 the object is to stretch the fibers and lay them parallel 

 with each other, and this produces a yarn, even, strong, 

 and composed of as fine fil)ers as possible. In this process 

 of manufacture, it is easy to see that the length and 

 strength of a fiber includes its most valuable character- 

 istics. 



168. Classification of Wool. There is another mar- 

 ket classification which is more definite than this, but is 

 very similar in nature. The wools according to their 

 length and strength in the Chicago market are divided 

 into clothing, which is short, being about two inches, or 

 it is weak ; then there is the delaine class, which is a fine 

 wool from two to three inches long in fiber. The other 

 class is a combing, which is a strong wool over three 

 inches long. This classification, it will be seen, depends 

 altogether on the length and strength of the wool. Con- 

 sidering first, clothing wool, which is used for making 



