620 



FARMER'S CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



to do tip the fleece, it should he a little 

 longer than usual and smaller and much 

 less twine used. 



The tags should be trimmed off the 

 fleece and sold separately. They should 

 never be done up in the fleece. When 

 sheep die of natural causes, the wool 

 may be pulled off and sold. This pulled 

 wool is not as valuable as sheared live 

 wool, as it will not take dye as well and 

 should always be sold separately as 

 pulled wool. Likewise the pelt of a dead 

 sheep is much less valuable than from 

 one that has been killed. 



Paint marks on the wool represent so 

 much loss to the manufacturer and con- 

 sequently lower the price for the wool. 



Classification of wool — The grower 

 will seldom be in a position to sort his 

 wool in such a manner that it would be 

 any benefit to the manufacturer. It 

 should, however, be graded uniformly 

 as regards fleeces of different breeds, put- 

 ting those together of the same breed 

 and character. Beyond this the grower 

 will seldom be able to go. Wool is clas- 

 sified in several different ways and in 

 order that the grower may interpret the 

 market prices of these different grades, 

 a brief account will be given of them. 



In a broad way, wool is classified as 

 Domestic, Territory and Carpet or 

 Blanket wool. By Domestic wool is un- 

 derstood the kind of wool generally ob- 

 tained from sheep grown under general 

 farm conditions. It should be bright, 

 free from sand, dirt, burs, etc. Should 

 it contain these materials, it would fall 

 into the Territory class. 



The Territory wools are so called be- 

 cause they are produced most abundantly 

 in the territories and are generally 

 discolored and dirty with sand, burs, 

 seed, etc. Where, however, range wool 

 is clean, it falls into the Domestic class. 



The Carpet or Blanket wool is com- 

 posed of wools containing a large 

 amount of hairy fiber and kemp. By 

 kemp is meant the coarse white hairs 

 which are found mixed with the wool in 

 greater or less quantity. Kemp is usu- 

 ally prominent in the face, the forearm 

 and the inside of the flank. Whenever 

 kemp is found in these latter places, it 

 is likely to be more or less abundant 

 throughout the whole breed. This kemp 

 or hair does not take dye readily and 

 on this account injures the fleece for 

 manufacturing, except for the coarser 

 grades of goods like carpets and blank- 



ets. In breeding sheep for wool, those 

 which exhibit kemp should be fattened 

 for market. 



The Domestic and Territory wool may 

 be divided into three classes, desig- 

 nated as clothing or m carding wool, De- 

 laine and combing wool. This classifi- 

 cation is based entirely on the length, 

 quality and strength of the wool. And 

 each one of these classes may be graded 

 as fine, medium or coarse. 



Generally speaking, clothing wools are 

 short wools of relatively fine quality 

 and less than 2 1 2 inches in length. The 

 Delaine wools are also fine wools clipped 

 from all varieties of Merinos, which 

 grow a long, strong wool staple, 2 1 2 to 

 3 inches in length, while combing wools 

 are those over 3 inches in length which 

 are sound. Nearly all of the coarser 

 long wools are graded as combing wools. 

 However, a wool which may be long 

 enough for combing, if it be unsound, 

 is classed as clothing or carding wool. 

 These three different classes of wool are 

 subdivided according to quality or size 

 of fiber as follows : 



Clothing wools 



Combine: wools 



Delaine wools 



¥ 



Picklock 



XXX 



XX 



Xo. 1 or 1 o blood 

 Xo. 2 or % blood 

 Xo. 3 or 3 i blood 



% blood 



y 4 blood 



Coarse or common 



Braid 



Pine 



Medium 



Low 



In this classification the Picklock is 

 the highest grade of clothing wool; it 

 is now rarely found on the market since 

 usually only the wool from pure Saxony 

 Merinos grade Picklock. The XXX is 

 next highest in grade and is also scarce. 

 It is sometimes found when Saxony Me- 

 rinos are crossed with the common 

 American or Spanish Merinos. The XX 

 grade is a little lower than XXX and 

 is the standard grade usually produced 

 by the pure bred Merino. The three- 

 fourths blood Merino, all high grade 

 Merinos, and the coarser pure blood 

 Merino wools grade as X. 



'"The terms one-half, three-eighths 

 and one-fourth blood do not necessarily 



