Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. ^2,1 



and most beautiful delaines and other worsted fabrics. I know of an 

 instance of an imported flock of Saxons having been taken to Tennes- 

 see some forty years ago, and, judging from the samples of their wool, 

 the conclusion is inevitable that little or no deterioration has been 

 produced by the climate. If sheep are provided with suitable retreats 

 for shade during the summer months, there are many districts in the 

 southern States unsurpassed for wool cultivation. If there is a ten- 

 dency to coarseness it will be retarded or wholly prevented by an occa- 

 sional recurrence to Northern stock-getters. 



Many imagine that the climate of the southern States. is wholly 

 unsuitable for the production of a fine fleece, because of the inferiority 

 of the wools of South America. The degeneracy of the Merinos 

 taken there has not arisen so much from the climate as because 

 "industrious men and intelligent breeders" were not present to man- 

 age them. Furthermore, very many of the sheep transported there 

 from Spain were of the Chunah breed, producing very coarse wool, 

 and these were promiscuously bred with the Merinos. The conser- 

 vative power over the fleece lies in good management far more than 

 climate. 



Felting. 



The phenomenon of felting long remained enshrouded in mystery. 

 This gave rise to numerous speculations as to the primary cause or 

 causes, some of which, although plausible at the time of their publi- 

 city, now that the true cause has been discovered, appear quite ridi- 

 culous. But the keen sagacity of man at length mastered the subject 

 by surmising the correct theory, without the means, however, to 

 demonstrate it for want of microscopes of adequate power. To M. 

 Monge, a distinguished French chemist, are we indebted for the first cor- 

 rect view of the structure of the fiber, upon which, from its peculiarity, 

 mainly depends the process of the felting principle. lie asserted 

 " that the surface of each fiber is formed of lamellse or little plates 

 which cover each other from the root to the point, pretty much in 

 the same manner as the scales of a fish cover that animal from the 

 head to the tail, or like rows placed over one another, as is observed 

 in the structure of horns ; " and he accounts for the felting process 

 iii the following way, very true and very graphic : 



" In making a felt which is to constitute the body of a hat, tho 

 workman presses the mass with his hands, moving them backward 

 and forward in various directions. This pressure brings the hairs or 

 fibers against eacli other, and multiplies their points of contact. The 



