Wool in Relation to Science with Practice. 315 
riots : four years afterwards a Committee of the House of Com- 
mons reported in favour of the free use of machinery. \\ ar in 
Spain caused the Spanish wool-clip to decline ; but by this time 
the famous Merino had found his way over Europe, and, further, 
he had reached our most distant colonies, there wonderfully to 
increase and prosper. The history of the more recent importation 
of wool into this country is simply this : the German supplanted 
the Spanish, and then both gave way to our Colonial imports, 
which in 1825 were admitted duty free.* It was said, years ago, 
with truth and prescience, " that with labour on the sheep, and 
more care and labour in cleansing the wool, Colonial wools might 
successfully rival those of Saxony and Spain."! 
I The right knowledge of anything in great measure depends 
upon the knowledge of its history, and the more we study the 
history of this subject the more we are taught that wool and the wool 
trade was the foundation of our English commercial prosperity. 
The '■Journal' of the Societij as it relates to our Subject. — 
I I now should, before going farther, run through the 36 volumes 
of the ' Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society,' to pick up 
such manna as may serve to feed out mv present object : there 
are here and there spasmodic indications of a desire to consult 
the wool-stapler and the wool-trade, but no sustained effort. In the 
6th volume Professor Wilson gives us a paper " On Sheep and on 
U ool, its Character and \ alue : " he deals more with details than 
with principles ; and, second-hand, the Professor works up informa- 
tion originally obtained for Board of Trade purposes. ]Mr. Smith, 
in the 8th volume, tells us to assist jNature by fitting the sheep 
to the soil, situation, and climate. Mi. Rowlandson (vol. x.) 
writes well " On the Breeds of Sheep best adapted to Different 
Localities : " but the good seed of conception is here rather 
sown on the'' stony ground of too limited execution. He men- 
tions the " smearing," which Stephens calls a " filthy practice." 
The result of every inquiry undertaken by Islr. Lawes we receive 
with gratitude and respect ; but his " Sheep-feeding Experiments" 
(vol. xii. pp. 13 and 16) are more directed to meat than to wool : 
he tells us, however, that in several lots where respective rates 
of increase of meat were nearly equal, there was great individual 
irregularity in regard to the growth and the weight of wool. 
The first volume of the new series contains a scientific paper, 
by Professor Simonds, " On Animal Parasites," interesting here 
because of the drawing of an Australian sheep-dip on a grand 
* Bv Mr. Huskisson, after a severe struggle. Colonial wool free — in 1844 all 
wool free. In 1828 it was conclusively shown that freedom was beneficial to the 
Home wool-grower, because it stimulated trade and manufacture. 
t See further on this subject, Bischoff, on ' Wool, Woollens, and Sheep,' 
London, 1842; 'Wool and Woollens,' Samuel Brothers, London, 1859; and 
' Europe during the Middle Ages,' Hallam. 
