40 PROPERTIES OF WOOL, 



An author remarks, " The variations in the diameter of 

 the wool in the different parts of the fibre will also curiously 

 correspond with the degree of heat at the time the respective 

 portions were produced. The fibre of the wool, and the 

 record of the meteorologist, will singularly agree, if the va- 

 riations in temperature are sufliciently distant from each 

 other for any appreciable part of the fibre to grow." 



In confirmation of the general fact as to the influence of 

 climate on wool and hair, the remarks of Mr. Hunter, an 

 English author of high authority, are quoted : " Sheep car- 

 ried from a cold to a warm climate soon undergo a remarka- 

 ble change in the appearance of their fleece. From being 

 very firm and thick, it becomes thin and coarse ; until at 

 length it degenerates into hair. Even if this change should 

 not take place to its full extent in the individual, it will in- 

 fallibly do so in the course of a greater or less number of 

 generations. The effect of heat is nearly the same on the 

 hairs of other animals. The same species that in Russia, 

 Siberia, and North America, produce the most beautiful and 

 valuable furs, have nothing in the warmer climates but a 

 coarse and thin covering of hair." 



The above must be received with some limitation. Mr. 

 Youatt makes the following remarks : " Temperature and 

 pasture have an influence on the fineness of the fibre, and 

 one which the farmer should never disregard ; but he may 

 in a great measure, counteract this influence by careful 

 management and selection in breeding. The original ten- 

 dency to the production of a fleece of mixed materials exist- 

 ing, and the longer coarse hair covering and defending the 

 shorter and softer wool, nature may be gradually adapting 

 the animal to his new locality ; the hair may increase and 

 the wool may diminish, if man is idle all the while ; but a 

 little attention to breeding and management will limit the 

 extent of the evil, or prevent it altogether. A better illus- 

 tration of this cannot be found, than in the fact that the 

 Merino has been transplanted to every latitude on the tem- 

 perate zone, and to some beyond it — to Sweden in the 

 north, and Australia in the south, and has retained its ten- 

 dency to produce wool exclusively, and wool of nearly equal 

 fineness and value." 



M. Lasteyrie, the unwearied advocate of the Merinos, 

 uses this remarkable language : — "The preservation of the 

 Merino race in its purity at the Cape of Good Hope, and 



