52 
THE SHEEP. 
THE SOUTH DOWN BREED. 
Common-, and Dean Forest breeds, producing a fine and delicate wool, are either extinct, or have lost their distinctive characters by 
intermixture with other races ; and throughout entire tracts of country, which, not more than twenty-five years ago, were occupied 
by Short-woolled Sheep, not a single flock of this kind is to be found. The South Down Breed, it has been seen, has been exten¬ 
sively substituted for many of the older breeds; but the Long-woolled Sheep of the lower country have likewise been progressively 
extending, and have either displaced the Short-woolled varieties altogether, or, by means of crossing, changed their character 
with respect to the production of wool. 
WOOL. 
The Hair of animals, of which wool is a variety, springs from the cellular tissue, immediately underneath the corion or true 
skin. It grows from a soft pulp included in a little sac, into which nerves and bloodvessels pass from the surrounding tissue. It 
extends outwards, passing through the true skin and epidermis in the form of a fine tube, the interior of which is filled with pulp. 
It possesses externally a scaly texture, the laminse pointing in one direction from the root to the tip, and is protected by an 
unctuous secretion. Wool is chiefly distinguished from hair by its growing in a spiral form, by its greater softness and pliability, 
and by a property to be referred to, by which the separate filaments adhere under the influence of moisture and pressure. On 
account of these properties, wool is greatly better suited than hair for being spun and woven into cloth. 
Hair is often largely mixed with the wool of Sheep, and, in the wilder races, forms the principal part of the animal’s covering. 
By frequent shearing of the fleece, the hair diminishes in quantity, and the wool is proportionally developed, until at length, 
under the influence of continued domestication, the essential covering of the animal becomes wool, of greater or less tenuity and 
softness. In the cultivated Sheep of England hair covers only the face and part of the limbs, but often hairs are mixed with the 
wool of other parts of the body; and this, as it regards the manufacture, is an imperfection, and it is a process of art to separate the 
intermixed hairs from the wool. 
Generally speaking, the wool of Sheep in these latitudes is yearly renewed, the older part falling off at the commencement of 
the warmer season, and it is then that we anticipate the process of nature by shearing the fleece. But the wool may be shorn at 
any time, and, like hair, will grow again. In this country, however, it is never thought beneficial to shear the wool more than 
once in the year, and this at the commencement of the warmer season, when the older portion is about to fall off. In certain 
parts of this country, favourable with respect to the mildness of the climate, the wool of lambs is shorn; but the practice is 
unsuited to a cold climate, and is only, therefore, very partially pursued. The wool of lambs employed in the manufactures of 
this country is chiefly derived from the skins of animals that have been killed for the butcher, though largely, also, from the 
importation of the skins of lambs with the wool from other countries. 
The wool of different races or families of Sheep is greatly distinguished by the length of the staple and the tenuity and soft¬ 
ness of the filaments. And not only does the wool of different Sheep differ in these properties, but the wool of the same individual 
is more or less soft and fine, according to the parts of the body from which it is derived. In general, the wool becomes less fine, 
proceeding from the neck towards the extremities, so that the wool on the breech is more coarse than that on the back and sides. 
It is a process of art to separate the finer from the coarser parts in an individual fleece, and this into such number of divisions as 
suits the nature of the wool, or the manufacture intended. The number of these divisions varies from six to ten, or, in many cases, 
to a greater number. The fleece being unrolled, the workman at his table, with a clear light thrown upon him, and guided by the 
eye and touch, culls out the several locks, as distinguished by the fineness of the filaments. These being put into baskets placed 
around him, are afterwards collected into distinct packages, and thus the manufacturer is supplied with wool of the peculiar quality 
required. This operation is sometimes performed under the direction of the manufacturers themselves, but more commonly by 
a class of persons termed wool-staplers, who purchase the raw material from the grower, and dispose of it after being assorted to 
the manufacturer. The operative part of the process is one of great nicety, to which men are trained, as to the other mechanical 
arts, by a regular apprenticeship. 
Wool is eminently suited to the reception of colours by the dyeing process, excelling in this respect silk, and much more cotton 
and all other vegetable substances. White wool receives the colouring matter more readily than black, the finer parts of the fleece 
more readily than the coarser, and the wool of healthy Sheep more readily than that of those which are unhealthy. The natural 
colour of wool is often black, and black filaments are frequently mixed with the white. This intermixture is regarded as a great defect, 
the black filaments being unsuited for the reception of the brighter and more delicate colours in dyeing. This intermixture of black 
wool with white is most apt to take place in the case of the breeds of Sheep whose legs and faces are covered with dark hair. 
