68 MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF SHEEP 



less fine. High grade Merinos also produce wool that is 

 quite fine. The Australian Merino in the best grades is 

 but little behind the American Merino. The finer of 

 these wools are largely made into light and soft fabrics 

 for woman's wear and the medium into worsted and de- 

 laine goods. 



The intermediate wools produced in this country, as 

 previously intimated, come from the following breeds, 

 which are named in the order of their fineness, beginning 

 with the finest: Southdown, Tunis, Dorset, Shropshire, 

 Cheviot, Suffolk, Hampshire and Oxford. This classifi- 

 cation may be challenged, but it is doubtful if it can be 

 improved upon at the present time. The finest of these 

 is the Southdown, the fibers of which have a diameter of 

 about i-iiooth of an inch. These wools, known as cloth- 

 ing wools, are made into a great variety of clothes, a 

 majority of which are for everyday wear. They also fur- 

 nish blankets. 



The coarse wools produced in this country come from 

 the following breeds, named in the order of their fineness, 

 beginning with the finest: Leicester, Lincoln, Cotswold 

 and Black Faced Highland. These are used for making 

 garments coarse of texture, but that will endure much 

 wear. Wools still coarser than some of the above come 

 from Peru, Chile, Russia, Turkey, Greece and China, 

 These are made into carpets and the coarsest kinds of 

 goods, also into knitting yarn. 



Carding and combing wools — From the standpoint of 

 the manufacturer, all wools are classified as carding or 

 combing. The former seldom exceed 2 to 4 inches in 

 length, the latter include wools that are longer. But 

 these distinctions are being modified by the French 

 methods of spinning, which comb and spin even wools 

 that are short. 



Carding wools are sometimes called felting wools. 

 Felting is the amalgamation or matting of the fibers. The 

 small toothlike projections of one fiber catch into those 



