Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 523 



It is, then, a matter to be studied by the wool-grower who is 

 desirous of propagating sheep of the fine-wooled varieties, for grades 

 will often exhibit seven and eight qualities in the same fleece, whereas 

 unalloyed breeds show but four qualities. Individuals have occa- 

 sionally been found in original Saxon flocks whose fleeces would 

 divide into only two sorts, but this is very rare. 



The retina, or the picklock wool, begins at the withers and extends 

 along the back to the setting on of the tail. It reaches only a little 

 way down at the quarters, but, dipping down at the flanks, takes in 

 all the superior part of the chest and the middle of the side of the . 

 neck, to the angle of the lower jaw. The fina, a valuable wool, but 

 not so much serrated or possessing so many curves as the retina, occu- 

 pies the belly and the quarters and thighs down to the stifle-joint. 

 The third quality is found on the head, the throat, the lower part of 

 the neck and the shoulders, terminating at the elbow ; the wool 

 yielded by the legs, and reaching from the stifle to a little below the 

 hock, and procured from the tuft that grows on the forehead and 

 cheeks, from the tail, and from the legs below the hock, is the fourth 

 quality. 



Length of the Staple. 

 Formerly wool of short staple only was thought by the manufac- 

 turer indispensable to make a fine cloth with a dose pile or nap, but 

 the improvements made in machinery within t wen ty years have super- 

 seded this consideration, and now long-stapled wool is most valued. 

 This, in part, proceeds from the fact that short wools have more " dead 

 end " proportionately than long. Again, the manufacture of delaines 

 calls for a long, tough staple. The Australian wools, which are of 

 Merino and Saxon blood, from the mildness and equability of the 

 climate are very much longer than formerly, and are most used for 

 the above fabric. It is a query, however, whether a fine and very 

 compact fleece, possessing a long fiber, can be produced on the same 

 sheep. Very close, fine fleeces are always comparatively short in 

 staple, and close fleeces are indispensable in our rigorous climate to 

 protect the sheep from the effects of cold and wet. On the contrary, 

 open fleeces are long in staple, but a poor defense against a low tem- 

 perature. It is, therefore, a question for the wool-growers of the 

 northern States to consider whether, in obliging the manufacturer, 

 he will not adopt a policy injurious to the constitution of his sheep. 

 In a more southern latitude this consideration is not so important. 



