The Shepherds' Guide, 79 



jointed in the pile, to so great a degree, that 

 Mr. Robert Bakewell, a gentleman, who from 

 early life has been engaged in the wool business, 

 and is consequently well acquainted with the sub- 

 ject, has thought it of sufficient importance to 

 make it the subject of a very ingenious essay, ad- 

 dressed to Lord Somerville, so lately as the year 

 1810. He asserts, that taking two packs of wool, 

 of the same apparent fineness, one possessing in 

 an eminent degree the soft quality, the other of 

 the hard kind, the farmer will from the first, with 

 the same expense to the manufacturer, make a 

 cloth, the value of which shall exceed the latter full 

 twenty- five per cent. Eveiy means, therefore, 

 which can contribute to give to our wool these 

 estimable qualities should be known and pursued. 

 The first and most important of these no doubt is, 

 the introduction of the Merino, the best and most 

 valuable breed of fine-woolled sheep known j and 

 the improvement of his fleece, as well as that of 

 his descendants, by judicious breeding and selec- 

 tion. But besides these, some other circumstances 

 and attentions in the management of sheep are 

 said to contribute so greatly to this end, that they 

 deserve to be particularly considered. 



Mr. Bakewell,justmentioned, strongly recom- 

 mends the practice of greasing and salving sheep, 

 as is done in Scotland, Northumberland, York- 

 shire, and some other northern counties of Eng- 

 land j as giving to wool that soft and silky feel, so 



