THE CULTURE OF WOOL. 261 



that is on the side near the shoulder. This kind of wool 

 is without elasticity, harsh, and without the curl or wavy 

 fiber of the best wool. It is most distinct in the Merino and 

 the curly long wools, as that of the Lincoln. Such wool is 

 dead and lifeless, without elasticity, and may be pressed 

 by the hand into a ball, as so much cotton fiber might. Of 

 course its value to the manufacturer is depreciated, for it 

 can only be used in inferior goods, as to mix with, shoddy, 

 to hold the stuff together. 



Another defect is known as toppiness, which is a sort 

 of felting of the fibers at the top of the fleece, by which it 

 causes waste in the carding. This is a result of uneven 

 growth due to a continued period of good feeding or condi- 

 tion of health, followed as it might be by hardship in the 

 Winter, on exposed ranges for instance, or by want of shel- 

 ter in the smaller farm flocks. In the lamb it may be only 

 a temporary condition, but in an old sheep it is a drawback 

 to its use as a lamb bearer, for this, as all other defects in 

 the fleece, are inheritable. It is one of the points to be 

 thought of when stock is selected for breeding. 



Felted wool is a decided disease, arising from a constitu- 

 tional or a temporary impairment of constitution. The wool 

 is naturally weak and devoid of sufficient yolk to lubricate 

 it, so that it does not move smoothly but chafes in the mo- 

 tions of the animal. Then when wet weather happens, and 

 the wool becomes wet to the skin the fibers adhere, and in 

 time becomes matted together in bunches, causing a 

 serious loss in the combing or carding of it. This fault 

 is most common in the rather harsher wools of the Downs 

 varieties, under such inferior conditions as do not provide 

 sufficient nutriment to sustain the best growth of the fleece. 

 When this felting is less apparent and occurs only at the bot- 

 tom next the skin as the results of damage later in the 

 growing season, or to inherited tendency to the fault, it is 

 known as clouding, and appears as a flossy condition of the 

 fleece near the skin. This is easily removed when it exists 

 to long wool, that is combed, because the combing removes 

 this soft fiber, but it causes waste and a loss even in this way. 

 In short wools it is not so objectionable as the carding mixes 

 it with the other wool, and it has no unfavorable effect 

 in the succeeding processes. But in examining animals for 



