WOOL. 



on the average. This contributes to enhance the difference 

 between the prices of each, as wrell as the fuperior finenefs 

 of the latter. 



Different wool-forters make a confiderable variation in 

 their modes of forting the fame kind of fleeces : fome divide 

 them into more forts than others ; but the following table 

 \vill (hew what may be taken as the average relative value of 

 each fort, when the prime is worth about three (hiUings and 

 two-pence per pound, and may ferve to fhew the fldll re- 

 quired to eftimate the value of fine Englifli wool in the 

 fleece. 



The demand for coarfe woollen goods having greatly 

 increafed of late, the prices of the lower forts are confider- 

 ably advanced from the above-ftated prices, and are at pre- 

 fent as under : 



• per pound in London. 



The Soflnefs of Jine clothing Wool is next in importance to 

 the finenefs of the fibre, though it has been too little at- 

 tended to in the culture of Englifti wool. This quality is 

 not dependent on the finenefs of the fibre ; it confifts in the 

 peculiar feel which approaches to that of filk or down, but 

 in which the wool of all European ftieep is inferior to that 

 of Eaftern Afia, or to the wool of the vicunna, Or lama of 

 Peru and Chih. In foreign European wools there are differ- 

 ent degrees of this property, where the fibre is equally fine. 

 In our native Englifh wools, the like difference exius be- 

 tween the foftnefs of wool poffeffing the fame degree of fine- 

 nefs, but grown in different diftrifts. In the harder wool, 

 the fibre is elaftic and hard to the touch, and cloth made 

 from it has the fame harfli feel ; it is alfo more loofe in its 

 texture, and the furface of the thread is generally more bare. 

 The difference in the value of cloth from two kinds of wool, 

 equally fine, but one diftinguifhed for its foftnefs, and the 

 other for the contrary quality, is fuch, that writh the fame 

 procefs and expence of manufafture, the one will make a 

 cloth more valuable than the other from twenty to twenty- 

 five per cent. 



Though the Englifti woollen manufaftures had been car- 

 ried on for fo long a period, the caufe of this difference in 

 cloths made from wool equally fine was but very imperfeftly 

 known till the prefent century. Mr. Robert Bakewell, then 

 of Wakefield in Yorkftiire, firft direfted the attention of 

 wool-growers and manufafturers to this fubjeft, in a work, 

 entitled " Obliervations on the Influence of Soil and Climate 



on Wool." The reafon why the manufafturers remained 

 fo long ignorant refpefting it arofe, he obferved, from 

 the manner in which the woollen-trade had been carried 

 on in Yorkftiire, the great feat of the manufafture of 

 Englifti clothing-wool, the divifion of employment there 

 not permitting the wool-dealer, or even the clothier, to 

 witnefs the final refult of the procefs. The wool-buver 

 in the dift.ant counties, and the wool-forter, who divided the 

 fleece, were equally unacquainted with the cloth manufac- 

 ture. The Yorkftiire clothier fold his goods in an undreffed, 

 and often in an undyed ftate ; they were bought and finiftied 

 by the cloth merchant, who was formerly unacquainted with 

 the previous proceffes of the manufafture, or the qualities of 

 wool. In a promifcuous lot of undreffed cloth bought at 

 the fame price, and apparently of the fame quality in the 

 rough fl;ate, if fome pieces were finiftied much better and 

 fofter than others, it was attributed to lucky chance, the 

 patron divinity of the ignorant. Mr. Bakewell proved that 

 the hardnefs of Enghfti wools does not depend on the nature 

 of the food, or even entirely on the breed ; it is the effeft 

 of the foil afting on the furface of the fleece. The wools 

 from chalk dittrifts, or light dry calcareous foils, have the 

 natural yolk or moifture abforbed by the particles of cal- 

 careous earth that penetrate the fleece, and the wool is 

 thereby rendered hard. The fame effeft is produced on a 

 flcin where hme is ufed ; it may alfo be produced by keeping 

 wool for a longer or ftiorter time in a dry hot temperature ; 

 and when wool has been fo dried, no procefs will reftore to 

 it its prilline foftnefs. On the contrary, wools grown on 

 rich loamy argillaceous foils are always difliinguiftied for 

 their foftnefs. The quantity of greafe or yolk in the fleece 

 has a confiderable degree of influence on the foftnefs of 

 Merino wool, the pile being fo clofe as in a confiderable de- 

 gree to prevent the earthy particles from penetrating the 

 fleece ; but in all Englifti fleeces the wool is grown thinner 

 on the fl<in, and admits the more eafy accefs of the abforbent 

 particles. Expofure to the diretl rays of a fummer fun has 

 alfo a tendency to injure the foft quality of the wool. We 

 ftiall have occafion to refer to the methods recommended 

 by Mr. Bakewell to improve the foftnefs of wool on foils 

 naturally unfavourable to its growth. 



Of fine European wools, the Saxony generally poffeffes a 

 greater degree of foftnefs than the Spanifti, which we believe 

 to be owing to the ftieep being lefs expofed to the aftion of 

 light and heat. The native fine Italian wool, before the in- 

 troduftion of the Merino race, poffeffed a confiderable 

 degree of foftnef?, judging from wools which we have feen 

 from thence, but they were deficient in foundnefs, and not 

 true gro-jtin. The wools on the chalk foils in the fouthern 

 and eaftern fide of England are generally hard, except, as in 

 Kent, where the chalk is covered by thick argillaceous 

 beds. Nottingham foreft, Chamwood foreft in Leicefter- 

 ftiire, and fome parts of Shropftiire, produced not the fined, 

 but fome of the foftelt wools in England before the late in- 

 clofures. The Cheviot hills in Cumberland are not 

 paftured by the fineft-wooUed Englifti ftieep, but their 

 fleeces poffefs a degree of foftnefs exceeding any from the 

 other diftrifts of England, and they are rendered foft by 

 artificial means, which we ftiall defcribe. It is ilill fome- 

 what uncertain, whether there are two diftiiift breeds of 

 ftieep, from which the fine ftiawl wool of India are grown ; 

 or whether one fpecies of the animal which yields it is not 

 to be claffed with the goat. The fleeces from India, which 

 we have feen, are grown on a very fmall ftieep ; clofe to the 

 fliin, there is a wool as foft as the fofteft fur; this is covered 

 by long coarfe hairs growing through it. When the wool 

 is once ftiorn, the feparation of thefe hairs from the foft 



wool 



