320 
JVool in Relation to Science with Practice. 
nature of the water-supply of districts and countries, as we shall 
see, raise important economic questions involving the expen- 
diture of thousands and thousands of pounds. Wool-brokers' 
reports constantly refer to droughty seasons abroad, and conse- 
quent large mortality amongst lambs. An Australian corre- 
spondent says : " I have seen a wash-pool that cost 10/. turn out 
wool cleaner and softer than another pool in another district that 
cost 5000/. : in the one case a clean country, and plenty of water, 
pure and soft ; in the other, clouds of dust and rivers of hard 
water." I am indebted to Mr. Fairley, the obliging and able 
Consulting Chemist of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, for 
the following generally suggestive note : — 
" The softer tlie water, or the smaller the quantities of lime and magnesian 
salts, or other hardening materials, the better the water is for the process of 
wool-washing. Such waters come from strata consisting of the older rocks, 
which contain their bases in the form of silicates, little acted on or dissolved 
by water. 
" In England and the Lowlands of Scotland we find, as a general rale, that 
the strata lie in the order of their age, beginning with the west coast, where 
we find the older rocks, and that the later rocks crop up in succession of age 
as we proceed towards the east. Most of our large rivers and tributaries, with 
tiie exception of the Severn, flow eastwards, and we find the upper waters 
comparatively soft and pure, and heuce more suitable for the purpose of wool- 
Avashing. 
" The Severn, in its upper course, also flows eastward, and there its water is 
pure and soft, while, as its course curves first to the south and then to the 
south-west, it drains a country containing later strata — such as ... . rocks 
readily acted on by water. 
" In the Highlands of Scotland we have the older primitive rocks, gneiss, 
granite, &c., all consisting of insoluble silicates. Hence we have there pure, 
soft waters often as low as two degrees of hardness. We have similar waters 
in many parts of Wales, where Bala Lake and the upper waters of the Severn 
and Wye are also of a very low degree of hardness. 
" The upper waters of the rivers of Yorkshire, which rise to the soutli of the 
limestone-district, are, though not so soft as the waters previously mentioned, 
still much more so than waters in other districts." 
Within my own experience there is the fact that the Ripon and 
Thirsk district has the reputation, especially amongst foreigners, 
of producing from the same sheep wool of more than average 
quality ; and it has been stated that when for the purposes of 
sale wool was sent in from just without this district, the fraud 
was immediately detected. The subtle causes of this supposed 
local superiority would well repay patient investigation.* The 
* A practical neighbour, Mr. Frank liarroby, of Dishforth, near Thirsk, writes to 
me as follows : — " 1 may mention tliat I showed my wool in a class of nearly twenty 
exhibitors, at the Eoyal Agricultmal Show at Ijcicestcr, the headquarters of the 
pure-bred Leicester, and liad the first prize awarded to my wool. As to the 
superior quality of the liipou district wool, 1 liave heard the wool-dealera assign 
two reasons, each of which is very probable. One is tliat the sub-strata of red 
sandstone and freestone which underlie the greater part of this district act as a 
natural drainage, and tlie soil on these formations is invariably of a sound, and, in 
most cases, a good-bodied kind. The other reason assigned is, that the climate 
