FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 135 
the other parts of the body and limbs should be 
densely covered with wool of as uniform length as is 
attainable. It is a specially fine characteristic to see 
it of full length on the belly, forehead, cheeks, and 
on the legs as far down as the knees and hocks. 
The wool should stand at right angles to the sur- 
face, except on the inside of the legs and on the sero- 
tum; it should present a dense, smooth, even surface 
externally, dropping apart nowhere; and the masses 
of wool between those natural cracks or divisions 
which are always seen on the surface, should be of 
medium diameter. If they are too small, they indi- 
cate a fineness of fleece which is incompatible with its 
proper weight; if too large, they indicate coarse, 
harsh wool.* 
The good properties of wool are too well understood 
to require many words. Lengii is no longer an ob- 
jection to the finest staple, as it once was.t The 
maximum, both of thickness and length, cannot be 
attained on the same animal, and the object of the 
breeder should be to produce that particular combi- 
nation or co-existence of these properties which will 
give the heaviest fleece. 
* Mr. Fleichmann gives the German standard of their diameter at 
one-sixteenth of an inch. I should say one-quarter of an inch was 
quite small enough for the American Merino. Viewed very closely, 
these masses are not, In many high bred American Merinos, strictly 
flat on the surface, but slightly butroidal, each tuft composing it hav- 
ing arounded end. Pointed ends, particularly if their extremities are 
cuiled or twisted, and have a hairy appearance, indicate thinness and 
unevenness of fleece. 
+ The long fine wools, say two inches and over, are now manufac- 
tured into delames, &c.; and as already said, broadcloths are not 
made in our country. 
