FINENESS. 35 



SOFTNESS FINENESS. 



It is not as generally known as it should be, that softness 

 is a quality of wool of much consequence. When the wool 

 buyer and stapler proceed to an examination of a parcel, their 

 judgment will be materially affected as to its value, whether 

 " soft in handle," or otherwise. This, however, generally 

 speaking, is the result of comparative fineness ; but by no 

 means always so, for wool of the same quality of fineness 

 has not the same degree of softness. There are several 

 causes to account for it, and among them is soil ; as, for 

 instance, the chalky districts of England affect the wool to 

 such an extent as to make it invariably brittle and harsh. 

 This, however, is only local. The general cause of a de- 

 ficiency of softness in wools of the same breed, may be re- 

 ferred directly to the condition of the sheep. It has already 

 been stated that when the animal was kept in uniform good 

 condition, the necessary quantity of yolk was supplied. Now 

 if there is but little of this substance, which will follow an 

 abuse in management, the wool will be less pliable and 

 " kind to feel." Therefore it may be set down as a univer- 

 sal rule, that wool owes much of its softness to the presence 

 of a su-fficiency of yolk. 



As a testimony how much this quality of wool is appre- 

 ciated by the manufacturer, it is affirmed on the authority of 

 an English author, '• that two parcels of sorted wool being 

 taken, possessing the same degree of fineness, but the one 

 having the soft quality in an eminent degree, and the other 

 being harsh, the cloth prepared from the first, at the same 

 expense, will be worth more to the manufacturer than the 

 other, by full 20 per cent." 



FINENESS. 



This term, when applied to wool, is wholly comparative ; 

 various breeds of sheep producing wool essentially different 

 in quality, the same breeds varying much, and all breeds 

 exhibiting qualities of wool of unequal fineness in the same 

 fleece. It is also sometimes the fact that the extremity of 

 the fibre, as ascertained by the micrometer, is five times 

 greater in bulk than the centre and root. 



The fibre may be considered coarse when it is more than 

 the five hundredth part of an inch in diameter, and very fine 

 when it does not exceed the nine hundredth part of an inch, 



