86 Wool and its Growth. 



Heavy land will give a coarse wool, and the coarse- 

 woolled, heavy-carcassed breeds are more adapted to 

 such land than the lighter breeds, whose quarters are 

 more properly the light and sandy soils. The Merino 

 grows splendid wool on what seems, and actually would 

 be, a sparse or starvation diet for a longwool, but which 

 is the ideally suited diet for the active, hardy, Merino 

 breed, accustomed to patchy nibbling over a wide range. 



The fine-woolled breeds grow the softest and most 

 pliant wool, but the condition of the sheep, the quality 

 of the soil, and the state of the yolk have an influence 

 upon softness. Poor treatment will obviously lessen 

 softness and pliancy ; the wool grows thin and scraggy 

 and lifeless. Poorer the treatment more nearly to death 

 does the sheep get, and more nearly lifeless and poor is 

 the wool. A feast to-day and a starve to-morrow will 

 cause breaks in the Wool fibre, to which the manufac- 

 turer objects by paying a lower price. Although there 

 are modifications in such considerations, there is an 

 association between clay soil and soft, lustrous wool. 

 A limestone soil, which, however, is a favourable sheep 

 soil in other respects, will tend to a certain dry ness or 

 harshness in wool. The herbage of a clay soil is mel- 

 lower and softer, and wool responds sympathetically to 

 its influence. What may not be of advantage for one 

 thing, however, may be very good for others, for sheep 

 obtain health on limestone country, and bone and mutton 

 grow well. 



Each breed has its own characteristic length of wool, 

 and length is not so momentous at any time as quality. 

 A poorly-bred sheep will have its breed's characteristic 

 length of wool, but it will be of inferior quality. Food 

 exerts a greater influence on the soundness of the fibre 

 than on its length. As a sheep gets older each yea.r 

 shows a decrease in the length and weight of its fleece. 



Good wool, it has been seen, is the result of good 

 husbanding of sheep in domesticated or civilised sur- 



