332 
Wool in Relation to Science icitli Practice. 
He says, speaking of the weights of English fleeces : — 
" Mr. Liiccock in the year 1800 published a detailed estimate of the weights 
of fiecces, which was revised in 1828 by Mr. Hubbard, and again in 1840. 
In 1851, Mr. Thomas Southey, after extensive inquiries, took the average 
for the United Kingdom at five pounds. 
" Since the earlier of those dates, considerable changes have taken place in 
the actual weights of fleece, owing to improved breeding : and even during 
the last twenty years this has been the case with the sheep bred in agricul- 
tural districts, though not so much with those bred on pasture-lands. The 
■weights, moreover, are considered to vary from year to year as much as from a 
quarter to half a pound per fleece, according to the seasons and breed. 
"I am indebted to Mr. Legg, of Bermondsey, and Messrs. J. and J. Hub- 
bard, of Bradford, for much important information on this subject; and the 
latter gentlemen write, that 'in all the counties suitable for the heavier class 
of sheep, the weight of fleece has very considerably increased during the last 
twenty j'eai's, it having been found to the profit of the grower to cross with 
Leicester, &c., sheep, both as regards the wool and the mutton. A consider- 
able buyer of wools in Cambridgeshire writes us, that " the weight of wools 
grown in that district has doubled or almost trebled during the fifty years I 
have been a buyer, not only as regards the number of sheep kept, but the 
Aveight of fleece." ' 
Mr. Hamilton remarks, and this is very noteworthy, fluctua- 
tions in the prices of Colonial wool depend not so much on 
supplies as upon variations in demand, owing to commercial 
vicissitudes and political circumstances. 
The intelligent agricultural mind will probably most readily 
assimilate the essential statistical details of my present subject, 
when stated in the method which follows. 
Table I. shows the persons in England employed in working 
up the raw material : — • 
TABLE L— Fkoji Census, 1871. 
E-MILOYEI) IN WlMU, TUAIUC. 
Total nf 
JIalcs. 
Fcm.iles. 
Woollen Cloth Manufacture 
Woolstapler 
Wool, Woollen, — Dyer 
Wool and Worsted, othcr.s working' 
128,464 
1.9G4 
2, GOG 
40 
71,083 
1,957 
2,003 
11 
5G,7S1 
7 
29 
3 
and dealing in . . 
Worsted 3Ianu!'acture 
94,700 
34,053 
00,713 
227,810 
Tables II., III., and IV. respectively show the home and im- 
ported wool manufactured in England, and the countries froir 
"which imported : — 
