THE TYPES OF SHEEP 247 



be manufactured, as clothing, delaine and combing, in 

 each of which there are different commercial grades. 



259. Clothing. — Clothing wool is of fine, short staple, 

 about two inches in length and goes into the highest grade 

 of woolen cloth. Clothing wools are graded on their 

 quality into Picklock, XXX, XX, X, No. 1, or one half 

 blood ; No. 2, or three eighths blood and No. 3, or one 

 fourth blood. 



260. Delaine wool is fine, but longer than clothing, two 

 to three iijches, of sound staple and is used in the manu- 

 facture of delaine cloths. Delaine wools are graded 

 as fine, medium and low. 



261. Combing wool is characterized by the length and 

 strength of its staple, being at least three inches in length 

 and strong enough to withstand the combing process. It 

 is made up into worsted goods. Such a long wool is natu- 

 rally coarse, the finest grading only No. 2 or three eighths. 



262. The type of the wool sheep grown to-day is much 

 less extreme in form than the more distinctly wool, and 

 wool only, type of a quarter of a century ago. The 

 relative reduction and increase in the price of wool and 

 mutton, respectively, has led to a demand for better 

 mutton, even in wool sheep, so that the common source 

 of the finest fleeces now is, in reality, a dual purpose 

 sheep. As a result of the inevitable law of correlation, 

 under which mutton and wool are almost as much 

 opposed to one another as beef and milk or lard and bacon, 

 the old-fashioned, fine wool sheep were the extreme op- 

 posite of the mutton sheep in form. They were small, 

 with long legs, heads, necks and bodies, of an angular, 

 rather than a blocky, form, having light quarters, peeked 

 ends and flat ribs. Sheep of this type not only grew wool 

 of the finest staple, but also in great amounts. They were 



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