SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



145 



tations from wliicli constitute so large a portion of this Letter. But both 

 subsequent experience, and information derived from other sources, have 

 convinced me of the err^neousness of this opinion. South-Do.wn wool is 



V.'r"-'--: 





SOUTH-DO\ 



essentially different from Merino wool of any grade, though the fibre in 

 some of the finest fleeces may be of the same apparent fineness with half 

 or one-quarter blood Merino. 



The following cut from Youatt,* gives the microscopic appeai-ance, 

 says that gentleman, of a " prime specimen of picklock South-Down 

 wool," 1 being viewed as a transparent, 

 and 2 as an opaque object." The fibre 

 is 6To^'^ P^'"'- ^^ ^" 'v[\c\\ in diameter. 



The cups or leaves of 2 " are roughejied 

 irregular, and some of the leaves have ex- 

 ceedingly short angles," but they are far 

 sharper, more numerous and regular (the 

 points which give wool its felting property) than in ordinary South-Down 

 wool. In the latter, the cups are rounded and have a "rhomboidal" in- 

 stead of that sharp and "hotiked" character which distinguishes the Me- 

 rino and Saxon. 



South-Down wool is deficient in felting properties. It makes a " furzy, 

 haivy " cloth, and is no longer used in England, unless largely admixed 

 wit a foreign wool, even for the lowest class of cloths. 



The following testimony was given by some of the most eminent manii 

 farturers, wool-factors, staplers, and merchants of England, before the 

 C\»mniit'.ee of the K.ouse of Lords in 1828, several times previously al- 

 luded tc : i 



TMMt.ji.23e 



\ See Biechoff, vol. ii. pp. 145 to ISS. 



T 



