42 THE SHEEP. 



greatly better suited than hair for being spun and woven 

 into cloth. 



Hair is often largely mixed with the wool of Sheep, and, 

 in the wilder races, forms the principal part of the animal's 

 covering. By frequent shearing of the fleece, the hair di- 

 minishes in quantity, and the wool is proportionally de- 

 veloped, until at length, under the influence of continued 

 domestication, the essential covering of the animal becomes 

 wool, of greater or less tenuity and softness. In the culti- 

 vated Sheep of England, hair covers only the face and part 

 of the limbs, but often hairs are mixed with the wool of 

 other parts of the body ; and this, as it regards the manu- 

 facture, is an imperfection, and it is a process of art to 

 separate the intermixed hairs from the wool. 



Generally speaking, the wool of Sheep in these latitudes 

 is yearly renewed, the older part falling off at the com- 

 mencement of the warmer season, and it is then that we 

 anticipate the process of nature by shearing the fleece. But 

 the wool may be shorn at any time, and, like hair, will grow 

 again. In this country, however, it is never thought bene- 

 ficial to shear the wool more than once in the year, and this 

 at the commencement of the warmer season, when the older 

 portion is about to fall off. In certain parts of this country, 

 favourable with respect to the mildness of the climate, the 

 wool of lambs is shorn ; but the practice is unsuited to a 

 cold climate, and is only, therefore, very partially pursued. 

 The wool of lambs employed in the manufactures of this 

 country is chiefly derived from the skins of animals that 

 have been killed for the butcher, though largely, also, from 

 the importation of the skins of lambs with the wool from 

 other countries. 



The wool of different races or families of Sheep is greatly 

 distinguished by the length of the staple and the tenuity and 

 softness of the filaments. And not only does the wool of 

 different Sheep differ in these properties, but the wool of 

 the same individual is more or less soft and fine, according 



