OVIS ARIES. 



ily undergoes this change, and continues ever afterwards to 

 possess far more power in modifying the fleece of the off- 

 spring than the female parent. The produce of a breed from 

 a coarse-woolled ewe and a fine-woolled ram is not of a 

 mean quality between the two, but half way nearer that of 

 the sire. By coupling the female thus generated with such a 

 male as the former, another improvement of one half will be 

 obtained, affording a staple three fourths finer than that of 

 the grandam. By proceeding inversely, the wool would be 

 as rapidly deteriorated. It is therefore a matter of the first 

 consequence in wool husbandry to exclude from the flock all 

 coarse-fleeced rams. 



Sheep's wool is of two different sorts, the short and the 

 long stapled, each of which requires different modes of manu- 

 facture in the preparation and spinning processes, as also in 

 the treatment of the cloth after it is woven, to fit it for mar- 

 ket. Each of these is, moreover, distinguished in commerce 

 by the names of fleece wools and dead wools, according as 

 they have been shorn, at the usual annual period, from the 

 living animal, or are cut from its skin after death. The lat- 

 ter are comparatively harsh, weak, and incapable of imbibing 

 the dying principles, more especially if the sheep has died of 

 some malignant distemper. The annular pores leading into 

 the tubular cavities of the filaments seem in this case to have 

 shrunk and become obstructed. The time of year for sheep- 

 shearing most favorable to the quality of the wool and the 

 comfort of the animal is towards the end of June and begin- 

 ning of July. 



Long wool is the produce of a peculiar variety of sheep, 

 and varies in the length of its fibres from three to eight 

 inches. Such wool is not carded like cotton, but combed 

 like flax, either by hand or appropriate machinery. Short 

 wool is seldom longer than three or four inches ; it is suscep- 

 tible of carding and felting, by which processes the filaments 

 become first convoluted and then densely matted together. 

 The shorter sorts of the combing- wool are used principally 

 for hosiery, though of late years the finer kinds have been 

 extensively worked up into merino and mousseline-de-laine 

 fabrics. The longer wools of other breeds are manufactured 

 into hard yarns for worsted pieces, such as waistcoats, car- 

 pets, bombazines, poplins, crapes, &c. 



The wool of which good broadcloth is made should be not 



11 



