1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



437 



"V700L AT THE PAKIS EXPOSITION. 



The good book informs us that it is not 

 wise to compare ourselves among ourselves, 

 or to think more highly of ourselves than we 

 ought. Perhaps as a people we compare our- 

 selves with others too seldom, and are a 

 little given to self-glorification. A few weeks 

 since we published a long account of the trial 

 of mowers, which resulted very much to the 

 credit of American mechanics, and from our 

 former success in the exhibition of sheep, we 

 hoped that at least a creditable display of 

 American wool would be made in our Agricul- 

 tural department of the great Paris show. A 

 letter from H. D. L. Sweet, Esq., Secretary 

 of the New York State Sheep Breeders' and 

 Wool Growers' Association, addressed to Hon. 

 H. S. Randall, and published in the Bural 

 New Yorker, throws cold water on this expec- 

 tation. Just see what he says : — 



Of our own land, perhaps the least said the 

 better. In all departments we are deficient, 

 except machinery, and the Agricultural, partic- 

 ularly, is a libel and a disgrace. I believe some- 

 body does show three or four fleeces in a glass 

 case, locked up in the grease, — stained and 

 dirty at that. One fleece looks very fine, but 

 dead like, and it may be some crack fleece five 

 or six years old. I cannot find any other sam- 

 ples of any kind or quality. 



And as though this was not disgrace enough 

 for one day, or for one World's Fair, Mr. 

 Sweet says, "the worst thing in the Exposition 

 for our wool growers, is a Yankee invention to 

 make Mestiza wool as good as our own. It 

 takes out the burrs completely, and so well 

 was it thought of by the foreign jury, that 

 they gave it a medal from a sample of its work, 

 without its having been run." 



From his remarks on the collections of wool 

 from other nations we copy the following : — 



In the French department I have not been 

 able to see but very little. Of the samples I 

 have examined — perhaps 25 very fine ones — 

 the wool, without exception, I call short staple, 

 very fine, usually dry, without luster. Some 

 marked " lane wool" was, perhaps, from four 

 to six inches, I should think coarser than Mr. 

 Wing's or Gazley's, without luster and dirty, 

 but strong and felt harsh. 



In the English Department I have found 

 nothing, except from the Colonies, and they do 

 exceedingly well. Australia sends, I think, 100 

 samples in all, and all of them good — some 

 beautiful. The length, the fineness and luster 

 is equal to any I have yet seen here, and the 

 strength good. Canada does well in both 

 combmg and fine, except some of the fine 



wools lacked strength, but their combing wool 

 has excellent luster. The colonies of Natal and 

 New Zealand both send samples that are ex- 

 cellent, — but in no great quantity. 



Spain exhibits a large collection of fine wool, 

 short and dirty, some very much discolored, 

 has an old look. Perhaps it is some that has 

 been deposited in their Department of Agri- 

 culture for years, as there is but little shown 

 by individuals. 



Portugal has but few fleeces on exhibition, 

 but of both fine and coarse, white and black 

 as well. The fine is from an individual flock 

 of ten fleeces, of beautiful wool, good length, 

 fine quality, bright luster, silky and strong. 



In the Russian Department are about 100 

 samples handsomely displayed; fine, short 

 staple, very oily, some dirty, but apparently 

 compact fleeces, — some of the washed fleeces 

 white and beautiful. The flock of Amidee 

 Philbert of Atonania, Crimea, took a gold 

 medal. The same flock took the prize in Lon- 

 don in 1862. His complete flock number 70,- 

 000 in all. Russia also grows some rare wool, 

 and what must be Cashmere goat's hair ; long 

 wool invariably coarse. 



Austria shows her wool in little, straight 

 bottles, with biass caps, from an inch to two 

 inches broad, and from two inches to eight 

 long, and mostly ungetatable. The wool varies 

 from half an inch to three inches in length, all 

 in its natural state, and in all about 1,000 sam- 

 ples. The Duke of Kruman exhibits a few 

 fleeces in their natural state, — very fine, very 

 oily, very short, and very dirty. Some of 

 these fleeces, about 60 in all, have been washed, 

 some one-half of each fleece washed, and show 

 very white wool and a strong staple. 



Prussia has her wool in tiat glass cases for 

 samples, about 10x16 and two inches deep, — 

 176 of these with from 20 to 32 samples in 

 each. The longest I could find of fine was not 

 three inches, and of coarse wool not over six 

 inches. There were 62 full fleeces shown. 



Wurtemburg shows in Prussia fifty washed 

 fleeces, locked up, that took a gold medal. 

 They appeared to be washed after shearing. 

 They were not uniform in length or quality. 

 Several pictures of large flocks and individual 

 animals grace the walls of the room, — but they 

 seem to me to be one-third neck and head, 

 and not squarely built. J. E. Hoft'schlaeger 

 of Weisin, shows a picture of a Negretti ram 

 that looked like a Vermonter. 



Egypt makes quite a display of black, white 

 and tan-color, — none of it that I could feel of 

 but what was coarser than spaniel dog's hair. 



The Ottoman Empire has a few samples of 

 wool that appear to be about one-fifth hair, and 

 20 of the Angora goat, labelled "DeLaine." I 

 could not get at them. 



From South America the show in some de- 

 partments is good ; in others, poor. Chili 

 sends seven fleeces that ought to have remained 

 at home, and followed our example. Peru 

 sends a single fleece, apparently a good one. 



