583 
Extracts from British and Foreign Journals. 
ON THE VARIOUS BREEDS OF SHEEP IN GREAT BRITAIN, 
ESPECIALLY WITH REFERENCE TO THE CHARACTER AND 
VALUE OF THEIR WOOL. 
By John Wilson, Professor of Agriculture in tlie 
University of Edinburgh. 
The classification of the various breeds of sheep of this 
country is usually determined by the relative characters of 
their fleeces, these characters rendering the fleeces of each 
division respectively more or less applicable to the same 
purposes. Thus we have two well-marked classes — the 
“ long-woolled” and the “ short-woolled” and a third, whose 
characters are not so definite as to partake entirely of either, 
to which the term “ intermediate 99 may be applied. Of the 
“ long-wootted” we may take the Lincoln, the Leicester, and 
the Cotswold, as the more prominent types; of the “inter- 
mediate” we may take the Dorset, the Cheviot, and the 
Radnor breeds; and of the “ short-woolled” division the 
Downs, the Merino, the Welsh, and the Shetland, are 
perhaps the best examples. 
As the industrial application of these different wools will be 
more fully considered in the second division of the subject, I 
will here confine myself to a general statement of their uses. 
The “ long-wools” are used entirely for the various kinds of 
w T orsted manufactures, the Lincoln and other glossy wools 
being used for lustre-goods, &c.; while the Romney Marsh and 
some of the Irish are in great demand in the French market 
for similar purposes. The “ intermediate” are almost all used 
for invested yarns ; where the character, however, of the wool 
is kempy (as in some of the Scotch) they are found to be 
more suitable for low woollen goods, as carpets, blankets, 
hosieries, &c. The “ short-wools” are used chiefly for 
woollen purposes, the longer portions of the fleece being 
separated and used for worsted yarns and in the manufacture 
of stuff goods. The first two classes may be termed “ comb- 
ing” wools, and the last classed as “ carding” wools. 
