^58 History of the Author's 



make with the naked eye, I cannot discover any weakness or inequality through- 

 out the whole extent of the filament. I am, therefore, persuaded that the wool of 

 these breeds will grow to an indefinite length • with no other tendency to fall off 

 at any particular season, than occurs with regard to the hair of the human race. 



Were it not openly doubted by the ignorant, it would scarcely be worth while 

 to mention that the wool of the Merino-Ryeland breed, filthy and discoloured as 

 it may appear in its native state, becomes, by scouring, beautifully clean and 

 white. 



So far as to the wool of the Merino-Ryeland sheep. Let us now consider that 

 of the lamb. 



Of native Merino lambs wool, as I have before stated, a quantity comes over to 

 England, and is, in general, found to be much coarser, and more wiry than the 

 sheep's wool. I have adduced the examples of the Infantadb and Paular flocks, to 

 prove that this takes place in some varieties of the species much more than in 

 others. It appears to me that the 4th and 5th crosses of the Merino-Ryeland with 

 the Negrette ram have also this tendency. Six or seven lambs, which have this 

 year fallen from such a mixture in my flock, which I made by way of experiment, 

 are all easily distinguishable from the rest by the coarseness and shagginess of their 

 fleeces, especially about the rump. Whether the finer wool, which often succeeds 

 in the sheep, is a continuation of the same filaments as those which were so much 

 coarser in the lamb, or whether the coarser filaments are mingled with finer, which 

 afterwards grow up to form the fleece of the sheep, while the coarser cease to 

 spring, I have not yet had opportunity to examine. 



From my whole lamb produce, which has generally fallen from the middle of 

 January to the middle or latter end of March, I have shorn, at the latter end 

 of July, from i-'-lb. to if lb. each of unwashed wool. Some of the fleeces have 

 weighed even 2:^ lb.; and were 'he lambs by proper care brought to the same 

 standard, in point of size, I think it highly probable that they would give a full 

 average of 2 lb. 



Of my lambs' wool sorted, in 1802, 89]- lb. were reduced, by scouring, to 

 52 lb. 20Z. and manufactured by Mr. Hicks, of Eastington, into 33-} yards of good 

 cloth, which, at that time, I sold to a draper at 175. 6d. per yard, credit price, and 

 with the usual deduction of length. 



In 1804, much improvement had been made in the wool, and the price of cloth 



