158 
Wool and its Uses. 
Lincoln, York, and Nottingham. Lustre wools were formerly 
made cliiefly into ladies' dress goods, known as lustre Orleans, 
glaces, brill iantines, &c., and were also mixed vdth mohair and 
alpaca. Twenty years ago they commanded a much higher 
price in proportion to other goods than they do now. At that 
time the fashion had run for a long period on the' bright dress 
goods just mentioned. During the last fifteen years the fashion 
for these fabrics for ladies' dresses has almost died out, and the 
principal demand for them has consequently failed. They are 
now used for coat-linings, dust-cloaks, braids, and purposes 
where a smooth slippery surface is desired. Lustre or brightness 
alone, which entered so largely into the enhancement of the 
value of these wools for dress purposes, is now of secondary 
importance. It is, however, still necessary that they should be 
smooth and straight, and any crossing with rougher breeds for 
the purpose of obtaining weight, or with broken breeds for 
the sake of the mutton, reduces their value. The crossing of 
this wool with the Down does not enter into the discussion at 
this point, as it produces a new breed, of which more in due 
course. 
It must be remembered that in Lustre, as in other wools, 
the finer the fibre the more valuable is the wool. I have had 
so much experience of the unconquerable difiiculty of making 
the wool-grower understand this point, that I venture to draw 
special attention to it. The long-wool grower of Lincolnshire 
or Gloucestershire, hearing that fine wools are the best to sell, 
will tell the buyer that he has impi'oved his wool by ci'ossing 
it with Down and has thus produced finer wool ; whereas all he 
has succeeded in doing has been in many cases to spoil his 
original breed. He has lost the lusti'e and smooth straight 
hair, without obtaining enough of the fineness of the Down to 
be of any commercial value. A colonist under such circum- 
stances would have preserved the character of his breed, but 
would have continued it by a cai-eful selection of the finest 
woolled among his sheep. 
My readers will j^lease note that I am not arguing against 
the crossing of breeds, of which I will say more presently, but 
merely against the erroneous notion that the fineness of one 
breed can be grafted into another without altering its original 
characteristics. 
In the demi-lustre wools, the Cotswold may be taken by 
way of illustration. This wool is made into camlets for men's 
clothing in China, Japan, and Northern Asia ; into lastings for 
boots and furniture ; and into bunting for Hags, and some kinds 
of curtain-stuff's. Its value consists in its length, strength, and 
solidity of fibre. Whatever fineness of hair can be obtaiuod is 
