340 
Wool in Relation to Science loith Practice. 
usual track to Lisbon, I find flocks requiring attention as regards 
breed and management. Making a circuit of Europe, I see that 
the splendid Dutch wool might be improved by crossing and by 
better washing ; the Flemish wool requires also attention in wash- 
ing, and freeing from straw and dirt : the Russian native sheep, 
Donskois, are capable of great improvement ; the South-Russian 
Merinos are magnificent : the Austrian sheep, the Zackels, the 
Wallachians, and others, are being improved by English crosses, 
but attention is required in washing the wool : all contain the 
burrs which are so objectionable : Turkish sheep should be crossed 
with the Leicester ; there is the basis for capital combing-wool — 
hitherto the wool has been scurvy and kempy. To circumnavigate 
Africa, at Mogador I find English blood required to cross, and 
more attention to washing and cleaning : at the Cape, Leicester 
and Lincolnshire sheep, in many districts, might be introduced 
with great advantage : much wool is now scoured and sent to 
London in good condition, known as a " snow-white " wool : 
Natal possesses great natural advantages ; the amalgamating 
Leicester is wanted. Egyptian wool is apt to be spoilt by grey 
hairs, but the wool is soft, bright, and silky ; it comes near many 
classes of English wool. Taking Persia and the East Indies on 
my way to China, I find improvement on the march towards a 
large field awaiting development : in the more temperate regions 
I find wool of long and sound staple. China, with its won- 
derfully reproductive sheep, promises by judicious crossing and 
cultivation great improvement. From China to Australia is 
plain sailing : Sydney, with room for improvement, I leave, to 
admire at Port Phillip* combing-wools more perfect than any in 
the world, and also the Leicester Merino : having lingered there, 
I go on to Adelaide, with parched sheep-runs ; but the better 
flocks produce good combing-wool. In New Zealand I conclude 
my flying tour ; that colony is well calculated to produce long- 
stapled wool ; the large supplies now sent to London are very 
much in favour, but more care should be exercised in washing.f 
Essentially practical and practically suggestive. — Mr. G. H. 
Cox, a member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, 
an eminent agricultural authority there, has, on my suggestion, 
favoured the Royal Agricultural Society with the following de- 
scription of his mode of spout-washing sheep. My best acknow- 
ledgments are due to this very able gentleman : — 
* The ' Pall Mall Gazette ' of December 19th last, says : — " It is stated in Aus- 
tralian papers that a pure-bred Merino ram, owned by a Mr. Gibson, of Tasmania. 
:ind reared by liim there, was sold in Melbourne a .short time ago for thc-sura of 
(j80 guineas. While the ram was in Mr. Gibson's pos.sossion the amount of money 
raised by the animal's male progeny alone was estimated at upwards of . 5000 guineiis. 
t Information received 1860. Sco further, the 'Vienna Reports ' of 1873. 
