Wool in Relation to Science with Practice. 
329 
experience, yolk is simply the insensible perspiration which 
diffuses itself over the wool. It is more, but how much more is 
not accurately known ; ]Mr. Bakewell suggests that, by some un- 
known process, the secretion in part forms the fibre or filament : 
or is it a mere lubricant, as oil lubricates leather ? Mr. Youatt 
observes : " There is most yolk about the neck and breast, and there 
is the best wool ; softness of pile and yolk go together." Mr. 
Bakewell further dwells on the bad effects of heat on wool growth, 
and on the analogy of wool, hair, feathers, and the viscous fluid,, 
the secretion of the silkworm and the spider, and the possible 
action of the absorption of oxygen near the surface of the skin. 
I am, however, by authority physiologically advised that the 
chief object of yolk is simply to keep the skin soft and pliable, 
and incidentally to keep the hair or wool in an clastic condition. 
Upon the evidence, then, taken as a whole, I in this day quite 
concur in Mr. Youatt's conclusion ; the great practical question 
is, in addition to care in breeding, how to promote the growth of 
yolk ? Mr. Youatt says, on yolk farmers never bestow a thought,, 
and neither understand nor care about it ; this question, without 
doubt, will some day be regarded as one of the very cardinal and 
essential points of the sheep. 
We'must hasten through the wool-room * to speak a Avord to the 
agricultural engineer. The cloths to prevent undue evaporation 
of yolk, the darkness to maintain the bright lustre, the damp that 
causes wool to " clag together," and the yellow mould, are all 
well known ; we would also gladly, were it possible, squash 
once and for ever the wool-moth. Tinea mrcitella. 
Mechanics. — Great things have been done for agriculture by 
our mechanically scientific agricultural engineers. Machinery 
has been constructed by which a pound of wool has been spurv 
out to the incredible distance of 95^ miles ; why do not our 
engineers a little regard the wool whilst still on the sheep's back ? 
Here is such a picture for a painter, but not for the student of 
economic science — -the frightened sheep, the rheumatic shepherd 
up to his middle in the dirty hard water, the muddy banks, the 
intonations of the ewes and the responses of the lambs, the long 
and dusty road home, full of unwilling sheep, all aggravated by 
the inevitable barking and frisking of the " officious dog." Clip- 
ping on a dirty skin makes rough work. By the way, in tlieso 
days of labour difficulties, are we to have patent shears, on sound 
mechanical principles, some adapted for power, others for un- 
skilled labour? Some close pile-wool cannot, in the usual way, 
be washed at all. The importance of the inverted position of the 
sheep — the sheep on its back — is much and properly insisted 
* It is observed in the wool trade that the faiToer is most ■willing to force his 
wool on the market wlien piioes are low, fearing further flatness. With high 
prices he holds for a rise. 
