4-44 History of the Author's 



included in my calculation of the relative weight of the different parts in the original 

 Spanish piles. 



I have remarked, that the proportions of the different sorts of wool vary in 

 different fleeces. This will further appear from some future statements ; and for 

 it I- will now account. 



It may be laid down as a principle, that, the finer the whole fleece, the greater 

 the relative quantity of the finer parts. The Fina, Tercera, and Cahidas will, 

 therefore, within certain limits, be reduced exactly in proportion to the improve- 

 ment which has been made in the wool by a proper union of breeding animals. 

 This is determined by the instance of the wool of 1804, which was a mixture of 

 the fleeces of the fourth cross, and those of their descendants; but which must still 

 he considered as susceptible of improvement by a nicer selection of fleeces, and 

 care in accurate breeding. I am, indeed, from experience, well convinced that the 

 average of any person's Merino-Ryeland wool might be brought to a higher 

 standard than that of the cloth of 1804, and fully to equal No. 3, which is that of 

 1805. When, therefore, I add, that, in the former instance, about two or three 

 ounces of each fleece, which had fallen out in the shearing, and which, by scouring, 

 would be reduced to less than half that weight, were not added to the fleece wool, 

 it will be acknowledged that this defalcation would be much more than compen- 

 sated by the improvement which I have mentioned. In deciding on the just pro- 

 portion of the different sorts of wool in the fleece, we should, therefore, rather 

 under-rate our conclusions, were we to deduce them, in the yolk, from those of 

 1804, throughout any well regulated Merino-Ryeland flock of the ultimate 

 fineness. 



Notwithstanding the small proportion of the inferior sorts of wool in my breed, 

 I can venture to assert that the Fina, or second wool, is equal or superior to the 

 Refina, or best wool of the common Negrette pile. This may be proved by com- 

 paring the specimen No. 5, which is the Fina of a Merino-Ryeland ram, got by a 

 ram of the same cross, with the R. of the pure Merino No. i, now before the 

 Board. No. 6 is the Tercera wool of the same Merino Ryeland ram. 



Having thus endeavoured to establish the softness and fineness, the inelasticity 

 or felting quality, and the proportions of the different sorts in the wool of this 

 mixed breed, I must here observe, in contradiction to the opinion expressed in my 

 former essay, that the fleece of die two-tooth sheep is not uniformly the best in 



