424 HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



tors. To the offer of the premiums it was added that the 

 wool-stapler who intended to claim it must, previous to 

 settling, intimate his intention to the Society, and produce 

 satisfactory testimonials of his qualifications ; the premium 

 not to be awarded until January 1821, upon satisfactory 

 evidence being produced to the Society of the exertions of 

 the competitor, and the degree of success which had at- 

 tended the establishment. The principal object of the 

 Society in offering the premium was to evince its opinion 

 of the advantages which would be derived from the intro- 

 duction of wool-stapling into Scotland, and in the hope that 

 proprietors of sheep farms and wool growers might adopt 

 such measures as might secure that object. 



Although no claim was ever put forward for the 

 Society's premium, the subject excited much interest, not 

 only in Scotland, but also in England. 



A few years afterwards, namely, in 1824, an association 

 was formed in Edinburgh called ' The Scottish Wool- 

 stapling Company,' but it does not appear to have ever 

 carried on actual operations. 



Before closing our reference to this subject, it may be 

 noticed that in the preliminary notice to the eighth volume 

 of the second series of the ' Transactions,' published in 

 1843, it is stated that 'the profession of wool-stapling is not 

 practised in Scotland, and it is understood that, in the 

 general case, wool is sold in bulk, without the sellers being 

 judges of the various qualities of the wools which they are 

 thus disposing of It is scarcely doubtful that much of the 

 wool so sold in the mass might be found, by a proper 

 stapling, or division of the fleeces according to quality, 

 fitted for the various branches of the woollen manufacture 

 in Scotland, without being carried to England, there sorted, 

 and frequently returned to Scotland at a necessarily in- 

 creased cost. The Society does not, however, propose to 

 force a trade on the country ; it desires to satisfy the wool- 

 growers in Scotland that more good wool is to be found 

 among their fleeces than they at present suppose, and to 

 show them that, by a little attention, a knowledge of the 

 qualities of the wool may be obtained, so that, when they 



