244 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Ai 5. 



bear in mind that they are produced in foreign 

 lands. Bunting is all worsted and requires a 

 strong thread, in order that the article may be 

 light. The warp must also be worsted, for the 

 hard twisted filling would cut a cotton warp and 

 render it unfit for the breeze. 



To produce worsted warps it will require a bet- 

 ter class of wool in some respects than the farm- 

 ers in this section of country have been accustomed 

 to produce to any great extent. There are some 

 fleeces produced that are good warp wool, but the 

 great bulk is only fit for worsted filling, and some 

 so short that^t is only fit for woolen goods. 



But in order that the farmers may operate in- 

 telligently in the production of the class of wool 

 required for this purpose, it may be well to give 

 them a few leading ideas of the character of the 

 wool required, and some reasons why it is re- 

 quired ; and also state that that wool which is 

 best adapted to make worsted warps will also 

 make the best filling. Therefore, should worsted 

 warps never be made, the farmer would have the 

 satisfaction in knowing that he was producing 

 wool best adapted for worsted filling. 



The kind of wool required for worsted is that 

 which will make the smallest and strongest thread 

 with the least nap, and the smallest amount of 

 stock, and this can only be accomplished by comb- 

 ing the long stapled wool. 



Combing has two objects to accomplish — the 

 removal of the noil, which is the short fibres at 

 the bottom and the hard ends at the top of the 

 staple ; it also lays the fibre straight by taking 

 out the curl to a great extent. This is done by 

 the warm comb while the wool is moist. Wool is 

 the same in character as horn or hoof, warm them 

 and they are easily worked. The wool is worked 

 with a warm comb, and by repeatedly passing 

 through the wool while warm, the curl is taken 

 out, causing the fibre to measure one-third longer 

 after being combed than it did before. 



The wool best adapted for making worsted 

 warps is that sheared from yearling wethers. This 

 is what is called, in England, hog wool ; but when 

 only a limited supply of this can be obtained, then 

 wether wool is used, that is, wool sheared from 

 wethers two years old and upwards. The first 

 fleece of an ewe is as good as that of a wether, 

 provided she has no lamb, — if she has, her con- 

 dition is likely to be impaired, which weakens the 

 wool, causing it to break easily, making more 

 noils, which are of less value than the long, and 

 by shortening the fibre unfits it in a great meas- 

 ure for warp, and makes it less valuable 4bi any 

 other purpose. Wethers being always kept in an 

 improving condition their wool has strong, good 

 bottomed staples ; but if from scarcity of food, or 

 want of proper care, or by disease, at that partic- 

 ular time when the wool is growing, there will be 

 a weak place in the staple, and should the difficul- 

 ty be serious the staple will scarcely hold together. 

 Hence ewes' wool is never so good for any pur- 

 pose as wethers'. Their condition is always vari- 

 able, and their wool will be as variable as their 

 condition ; consequently a young ewe, having 

 lambs before she has arrived at maturity, cannot 

 have a good fleece of wool, and no ewe can be 

 drawn heavily upon by lambs without its wool be- 

 ing poorer, therefore a moderate supply of lambs 

 will be made up to the farmer by a larger quantity 

 and better quality of wool. 



Wool grows from a soft pulp included in a lit- 

 tle sack underneath the true skin, through which 

 it pastes in the form of a cylinder, consecmently 

 whatever tends to diminish the supply of pulp, 

 robs the fibre of nourishment, and checks ita 

 growth. You cannot have both pulp and milk, 

 and old age furnishes it very sparingly. 



The fibres of wool have externally a scalv tex- 

 ture, the scales pointing from root to tip. These 

 scales form a sort of fine points or serrations, 

 which, when wrought into cloth, lock themselves 

 together, producing by this means a much strong- 

 er thread than if smooth. These scales are small- 

 est and most numerous, and the serrations finest 

 pointed, in the finest wool, therefore broadcloth 

 made from the finest wool is stoutest if not too 

 much reduced in stock. But in worsted, where 

 the strength of the thread depends in some meas- 

 ure upon the length of the splice, the longer the 

 fibre the stronger the thread ; yet the strength is 

 increased, if, in proportion to the length of the 

 fibre, we have a proportionate number of secre- 

 tions, and the scales being shortest in young sheep's 

 wool, the secretions will be most numerous and 

 finest pointed, and will produce the strongest 

 thread. Older the sheep the longer and more 

 blunted the points of the scales and fewer the ser- 

 rations, and these less capable of cohering to oth- 

 ers, cannot produce as strong a thread as young 

 wool. On this account old sheep's wool is fre- 

 quently styled slippery-haired, — a proper appella- 

 tion, — it will not hang together well in worsted. 

 A firm piece of broadcloth cannot be made from 

 it. The farmer will now easily understand why 

 young sheep's wool is so much more desirable 

 than wool from old sheep, and if he desires good 

 cloth he must produce a good material to make it 

 from. He is interested in the production of good 

 cloth, but he cannot have it unless he produces 

 good stock ; the production of the material is his 

 part, the working of it the manufacturer's. 



The farmer should bear in mind that pastures 

 abounding in burrs waste a great amount of wool, 

 and unfits it for worsted ; if these are cast out with 

 shears half the staple is cut away,<§he part cut off* 

 is but of small value, and the part left is not fit 

 for worsted, and of little value 'for woolens. If 

 the briars are taken out with a machine, the staple 

 is broken by the process, and its quality seriously 

 impaired ; this, too, unfits it for worsted. Mark- 

 ing the sheep with tar or pitch wastes a great 

 amount of wool — this must be cut off with shears, 

 which destroys about half the staple and serious- 

 ly impairs the value of the other half. 



Sheep, allowed to run amongst the bushes, will 

 have the back of the neck, between the shoulders, 

 and sometimes along the back filled with leaves, 

 seeds and little sticks ; this injures the wool for 

 any purpose, but entirely unfits it for worsted. 

 And a careless manner of feeding sheep in winter 

 with hay, fills the neck and back with the seed ; 

 this also impairs the wool very much, as it is al- 

 most impossible to remove it, and also unfits it for 

 worsted. Sheep ought always to be fed in racks 

 which will not allow them to shake the hay over 

 their backs — a hopper-shaped rack is the best — 

 not of so blunt an angle as to prevent the hay 

 from falling into the trough, but projecting suffi- 

 ciently to protect the back and the neck. The 

 slats should not be more than eight inches — these 

 should be perpendicular — and the hopper above 



