Wool and its Uses. 
157 
This paragraph is just as applicable to-day as it was at tlie 
time it was written, and if farmers do not get the lessons which 
their incomplete knowledge requires, it is not in any way the 
fault of the wool-staplers, who would be only too glad to give 
instruction and advice to any agriculturists who did not think 
themselves superior to it, although I am much afraid that with 
this condition attached the teaching work of the wool-staplers 
would be light. 
Having as a dealer in wool been brought into contact 
during the greater part of my life with the agricultural com- 
munity, I may be allowed to say from my own observation that 
the British farmer knows very little about wool. To him it is a 
commodity which comes round once a year, and which provides 
him with a useful sum of money, and there the matter ends. As 
to what it is made into, and whether there is anything special 
to be . aimed at in its cultivation, he has never been at much 
pains to ascertain. He has a notion that by some easy process, 
which is a mine of wealth to the manufacturer, his wool is made 
into cloth : but of what kinds, and how certain of his proceed- 
ings affect the trade, he does not care to know. This was all 
very well as long as he had the market to himself. But now, 
with the supplies of wool from all quarters of the globe com- 
peting with him as they do, more enlightenment on the matter 
is necessary if he is to hold his own. 
As a contribution towards a better knowledge of the sub- 
ject, I propose briefly to describe English wool and its uses, 
before proceeding to discuss its commercial aspects. 
Descriptions or English Wool. 
English wool may be divided into four principal classes, as 
follows : — 
I. Tlie Leicester or long wool. 
II. The Do^vn or short wool. 
III. The Half-bred, which is a cross between I. and II. 
IV. The Mixed and Broken breeds, i.e. containing a cross of 
Scotch Blackfaced or Mountain breeds. 
I. The Leicester or Long Wool. — This wool may be sub- 
divided for commercial purposes into Lustre and Demi-lustre. 
The pure lustre wools ' are produced only in the counties of 
' I may be permitted to say here that lustre must not be confounded with 
colour. Lustre is an intrinsic and inherent silvery brightness of the fibre 
not lost in process of manufacture, and wliich cannot be given to goods not 
made of pure lustre wool. 
