CHAPTER Vin, 



THE SAME SUBJEOT OOUTINUED. 



YOLK CHEMICAL ANALTSIS OF TOLK ITS USES PEOPEK 



AMOUNT AND CONSISTENCY OF IT ITS COLOE COLOEING 



SHEEP AKTIPICIALLY— ARTIFICIAL PEOPAGATION AND PEES- 

 EETATION OF TOLK. 



YoLK. — This is that oHy feeling fluid, or that sticky, 

 pasty or half-hardened substance, within the ■wool, or that 

 hard substance on the outer ends of the wool, which commonly 

 receives the name of oil, grease, or gum. These appellations 

 are obvious misnomers when we take its chemical constituents 

 into consideration. 



Chemical Analysis of Tolk. — Vauquelin, a celebrated 

 French chemist, found that various specimens of yolk con- 

 tained about the same constituents : — 1. A soapy matter with 

 a basis of potash, which formed a greater part of it. 2. A 

 small quantity of carbonate of potash. 3. A perceptible 

 quantity of acetate of potash. 4. Lime, whose state of 

 combination he was unacquainted with. 5. An atom of 

 muriate of potash. 6. An animal oil, to which he attributed 

 the peculiar odor of yolk. He found the yolk of French and 

 Spanish Merinos essentially the same. He assumed that the 

 yolk in sheared wool injures it afte'r a few months, if not 

 scoured out. 



Uses of Yolk. — Yolk has been believed in all countries 

 and times to promote the gtowth of wool and render it soft, 

 pliant and healthy. It seems to me to have other and obvious 

 uses.* The small, irregular -shaped masses of wool which 

 adhere together in the unshorn fleece of the Merino sheep, and 

 which are bounded externally by visible, permanent cracks. 



* I suggested tbese nses in my Beport on Fine -Wool Husbandry, made In 

 February, 1862. 



