WOOL AND MUTTON 227 
regions, and if forced to subsist on wet lands certain ail- 
ments often affect them that seriously interfere with their 
thrift, health and vigor. As for food, they prefer the 
weeds of the fence corners to the luxuriant herbage of rich 
fields, and the short, tender shoots of a closely cropped 
pasture of the hills to the maturer grasses of the lower 
and fertile levels. 
Sheep are very partial to salt, either as a part of their rations or 
as a natural character of the land. Among the domestic animals 
they are the most docile as well as most stupid, and are utterly un- 
able to protect themselves, even if the attacking foes are physically 
their inferiors. 
3. Wool.—The fleecy covering of the sheep is revealed 
by the microscope as composed of cells which overlap 
each other like the scales of a fish, and within is a hollow, 
full of marrow, forming the canal of the coarser kinds of 
wool. In the very fine wools this hollow is absent. This 
change has come as a result of domestication and breed- 
ing. Among the important characteristics, and by which 
wool is judged, are the following: (1) The weight, or 
what each fiber can bear without breaking; (2) the den- 
sity or the number of fibers to the square inch; (3) the 
length when uncurled and stretched out ; (4) the elasticity, . 
or the quality of again curling up after having been 
stretched; and (5) its color and brilliancy. 
4, Two principal classes of wool.—Although of many 
classes, for manufacturing purposes wool is divided into 
two principal groups—combing wool that includes the 
fine and short grades, and the carding wool that includes 
the long and coarse grades. In years past Merino wool 
has been the chief wool on the American market. The 
medium and coarse grades, supplied largely by the mut- 
ton type of sheep, have been offered in very much smaller 
quantities. By far the large proportion of woolen goods 
