THE WOOL INBUSTKY. 77 



Wool for worsteds is treated very differently. Instead of 

 being carded, it is combed. Thife consists in combing it out 

 smooth and then spinning it, giving it a looser appearance, thus 

 accounting for the more open texture which carpets possess as 

 compared to cloth or carded goods. Eaw wool passes through 

 eleven different stages before the manufacture is completed, viz: 

 Sorting, washing, drying, plucking, combing, breaking, drawing, 

 roving, spinning, reeling and weaving. 



Wool is generally classed as long or short, being graded as 

 superfine, fine, medium and coarse. The same fleece will be 

 made up of wool of the various degrees of fineness, it being the 

 business of the wool stapler or sorter to separate these varioiis 

 qualities and prepare them for manufacture. The fleece is un- 

 rolled; the wool sorter then selects the fine locks from the coarse; 

 the finest wool is selected from the neck, shoulders and sides; 

 the next best from the upper part of the legs and thighs, extend- 

 ing to the haunch and tail; the inferior wool being distributed on 

 the upper part of the neck, throat, belly, breast and part of the 

 legs. The stapler then divides the finest wool into ten lots, 

 classed according to the degree of fineness, commencing with the 

 pick lock, then the prime, the choice, the super, the head, the 

 downrights, the seconds, the abb, the liver, and lastly the breech 

 wool. These are the divisions which are found to exist in a- 

 single fleece. On the sheep's back the following points are 

 taken into consideration : 



1. Strength of fibre. 



2. Fineness. 



3. Curl. 



4. Thickness. 



5. Closure of the fleece. 



