244 The various Breeds of Sheep in Great Britain. 
price. Lower qualities suitable for more general use have been 
made by using Lincolnshire and other bright and silky-haired 
English wools ; and these have been brought to such perfection 
as to be eagerly sought after for light fabrics, for which previously 
finer and shorter-grown wools were used. Taking into considera- 
tion, therefore, the reduction in the value of hogs by the use of 
cotton warps, and the equalization of prices of the coarse, deep, 
bright-stapled wools with those which are small and fine-haired, 
in consequence of the extensive use of the former for the manu- 
facture of lustre goods, there is at present less difference in the 
comparative value of the various sorts of English combing wools 
than has existed at any time since fine wools were used for 
worsted purposes. 
Another totally different description of wool is known in the 
markets as " skin wooir 
Skin wool is the wool taken from the skins of sheep which 
have been slaughtered for food. This is made into various sorts, 
and used for the same purposes as those for which that character 
of fleece wool is generally adapted. But, as skin wool is pulled 
at all seasons of the year, of course it has all the varieties of 
length of staple, between the extremely short — immediately after 
the sheep are clipped, and the full-grown wool — when the sheep 
are ready to be shorn. In the kinds adapted for woollen purposes 
the whole can be used, the value being greater or smaller 
according to the length of staple. In the coarse, deep-grown 
combing sorts the wool is not applicable for combing purposes 
until it is of the proper length ; the early-pulled shorter wool 
being used for blankets and other low woollen goods, and the 
intermediate length being used largely for carded yarns for 
hosiery purposes. 
The woollen and worsted manufactures are carried on chiefly 
in the towns and district extending across the kingdom from east 
to west, between the ports of Hull and Liverpool. The position 
between these two seaports is an important advantage, whilst the 
abundance of coal, iron, and stone, which is found in the same 
locality, affords a cheap and plentiful supply of the essential 
materials of the manufacture. The following towns may be con- 
sidered the centres of the districts where the particular kinds of 
manufacture referred to are respectively carried on : — 
Woollen Cloths. — Leeds and Huddersfield, &c. ; and in the 
West of England, Bradford, Westbury, and Stroud. 
Blankets, Low Woollens, and Low Carpets. — Dewsbury, Heck- 
mondwike, &c. 
Worsted Goods. — Bradford, Halifax, Keighley, &c. 
Flannels. — In Lancashire, Rochdale, Bury, and the adjoining 
district of Rossendale, 
