234 THE DOMESTIC SHEEP. 



perienced on the sheep, which are permitted to crowd in 

 close pens after the fleeces have been soaked with rain. 

 The lieece then mats in spots to the serious injury of it for 

 the manufacturer's use. 



The different breeds vary very much in regard to the 

 character of the fleece. The length varies from one inch 

 in some parts of the finest Saxony and French Merinos, to 

 eight or more inches in the Lincolns. The fineness varies 

 as has been mentioned above. The luster also differs, that 

 of the Lincoln wool and the best of the Leicester, being 

 much brighter than the short wools or the fine Merino 

 fleeces. The curl also varies considerably; thatof the Merino 

 being the most conspicuous. The serrations are much more 

 numerous in the finest wools while they are far less promi- 

 nent and inferior iin number in the long and more lustrous 

 varieties. Thus it is that each kind of wool has its special 

 uses in manufacturing, and as the demands of the manufac- 

 turers, to meet the necessities of the markets for their 

 products are constantly changing, as the fashions change, 

 there is a concurrent demand for varieties of wools that can 

 only be met by cross breeding, skillfully managed by intelli- 

 gent and experienced wool growers. This necessity for 

 increased varieties thus opens up a wide field for the wool 

 grower in the direction of breeding for some special variety 

 of wool, and thus has to be met by intelligent crossing of 

 such breeds of sheep as will meet the necessities of each 

 case. 



CROSS BREEDING I^OR WOOL. 



As may be well thought from the remarks in a preceding 

 chapter on breeding of sheep, and especially on cross breed- 

 ing, the special breeding for variety of fleece must be under- 

 taken only by experts, to whom the whole subject is 

 familiar. That is, those having a full general acquaintance 

 with not only the history of the breeding of sheep but also of 

 the nature and varieties of wool, and as well as of the pre- 

 potent anility cf the- various breeds in regard to the perpetua- 

 tion in this line of their individual characteristics. One cf the 

 old breeders in his day very truly remarked, that the sheep 

 breeder works with sharp-edged tools, with which he may 

 very easily destroy his whole work by a slip of the hand, 



