100 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
ness. Of the absolute fineness little can be said. It varies to a 
very considerable degree in different parts of the same fleece, and 
the diameter of the same fibre is often exceedingly different at the 
extremity and the centre. The micrometer has sometimes indicat¬ 
ed that the diameter of the former is five times as much as that of 
the latter; and consequently, that a given length of pile taken from 
the extremity would weigh twenty-five times as much as the same 
length taken from the centre and cleansed lrom all yolk and grease. 
That fibre may be considered as coarse whose diameter is more 
than the five-hundredth part of an inch; in some of the most valua¬ 
ble samples of Saxony wool it has not exceeded the nine-hundredth 
part ol an inch; yet in some animals, but whose wool has not yet 
been used for manufacturing purposes, it is less than one-twelve- 
hundredth part of an inch. 
The fineness of the wool differs greatly on the different parts of 
the sheep. That runniug down the side of the neck and covering 
the shoulders, the ribs, and the back, is the finest; the next covers 
the superior part of the legs and the thighs, and extends up to near¬ 
ly the haunch and the tail; and a still inferior portion runs along the 
upper part of the neck, the throat, the breast, the belly and lower 
part of the legs. There is considerable variation in this respect in 
different breeds, and in individuals of the same breed; and, although 
a fleece, taken generally, may be said to be adapted to a particular 
use, yet a portion of it may be employed in the manufacture of a 
much more valuable article; and at the same time a greater quanti¬ 
ty will be thrown aside as not sufficiently fine for the originally in¬ 
tended purpose. 
THE WOOLSTAPLER. 
This is the business of the woolstapler,—the middleman between 
the breeder and the manufacturer. He purchases the fleece, and 
occasionally sells it in the same state, but oftener assorts it; divid¬ 
ing it into different parcels, according to their degree of fineness 
principally, or the possession of some property which fits it for a cer¬ 
tain manufacture. The sorter, who ought to have a delicate sense of 
touch and a quick eye, has several baskets around him, distinguish¬ 
ed, at least in the mind’s eye, by a certain number according to the 
fineness of the staple, and into which, with a rapidity that would 
surprise the inexperienced observer, and with an accuracy that can 
seldom be disputed, he divides the wool. There are seldom fewer 
than six divisions, and sometimes more than double that number, 
according to the quality of the fleece, or the expected demand for 
wools of a certain kind. The manufacturer, who knows precisely 
what wool will suit his purpose, and to whom the remainder would 
be useless, is thus enabled to obtain from the stapler, w ithout trou¬ 
ble or risk, the quantity and the sort that he requires. 
The short wool fleeces are usually distributed into ten parcels. 
The picklock —as its name, the picked locks, would imply—is the ve¬ 
ry best and choicest wool of the kind, and many fleeces of inferior 
wool are sometimes assorted before any great quantity is thrown in¬ 
to this basket. The prime, an excellent wool, and but in a slight 
degree inferior to the first. The two next divisions, the choice and 
the super, are good wools, but the fineness or the trueness of the sta¬ 
ple gradually decreasing. The greater part of a good Down fleece 
would, on assortment, be chiefly thrown into one or the other of 
these compartments, but some proportion even of the best would find 
its way into the baskets yet to be mentioned. The head, this title 
either indicates the part of the sheep whence the wool is usually 
procured, or that it is at the head of the inferior sorts. The sixth 
division is— the downrights, an honest, sound wool; but that is all 
that can be said about it. Next comes the seconds —the best of the 
wool from the throat or breast. The eighth is— the abb, a disputed 
and unintelligible term, meaning a still inferior wool. The livery 
—principally the skirtings and edgings, and the short coarse or breech 
wool, that which comes from the breech of the animal. 
THE INFLUENCE OF TEMPERATURE. 
Various causes affect the fineness of the pile; and temperature, if 
not the most powerful of them, deserves more attention than has 
been paid to it. It has already been observed, and it is a matter of 
common remark, that the extremities of the wool, and, frequently, 
those portions which are near to the root, are larger than the inter¬ 
mediate parts. The extremity of the fibre has generally the great¬ 
est bulk of all. It is the product of summer, soon after the shearing 
time ; when the secretion of the matter of wool is increased, and 
when the pores ol the skin are relaxed and open, and permit a larg¬ 
er fibre to protrude. The portion near the root is the growth of the 
spring, when the weather is getting warm; and the intermediate 
part is the offspring of winter, when, under the influence of the cold, 
the pores of the skin contract, and permit only a finer hair to escape ; 
while, probably, some of the cutaneous glands concerned in the 
growth of the fibre cease to act. 
If, however, the animal is well fed, the diminution of the bulk of 
the fibre will not be followed by weakness or decay, but in propor¬ 
tion as the pile becomes fine, the value of the fleece will be increas¬ 
ed ; but if cold and starvation should go hand in hand, the woolly 
fibre will not only diminish in bulk, but in health and strength and 
worth. 
The variations in the diameter of the wool in different parts of the 
fibre will also curiously correspond with the degree of heat at the 
time the respective portions were produced. The fibre of the wool, 
and the record of the meteorologist will singularly agree, if the vari- 
tions in temperature are sufficiently distant from each other for any 
appreciable part of the fibre to grow. 
It will follow from this, that the natural tendency to produce wool 
of a certain fibre being the same, sheep in a hot climate will yield a 
comparatively coarse wool, and those in a cold climate will carry a 
finer, but at the same time a closer and a warmer fleece. In pro¬ 
portion to the coarseness of the fleece will generally be its openness, 
and its inability to resist either cold or wet; while the coat of softer, 
smaller, more pliable wool will admit of no interstices between its 
fibres, and will bid defiance to frost and storms. 
The natural instinct of the sheep would seem to teach the wool- 
grower the advantage of attending to the influence of temperature 
on him. He is evidently impatient of heat. In the open districts 
and where no shelter is near, he climbs to the highest parts of his 
walk, that if the rays of the sun must still fall on him he may never¬ 
theless be cooled by the breeze ; but if shelter is near, of whatever 
kind, every shaded spot is crowded with sheep. 
Lord Somerville says, “ The wool of our Merino sheep after shear¬ 
time is hard and coarse to such a degree as to render it almost im¬ 
possible to suppose that the same animal could bear wool so opposite 
in quality, compared to that which had been clipped from it in the 
course of the same season. As the cold weather advances, the 
fleeces recover their soft quality.” Enough will be said in the course 
of the work respecting the duty and the propriety of giving these 
useful animals, when placed in exposed situations, some shelter from 
the driving storms of winter - ; and the alteration in the fibre of the 
w r ool shows that it would also be advisable to provide the flock with 
a shade and defence against the fervid rays of a meridian sun in the 
summer-months. 
A writer of high authority thus expresses himself: “ Sheep carried 
from a cold to a warmer climate soon undergo a remarkable change 
in the appearance of their fleece. From being very fine and thick, 
it becomes thin and coarse; until at length it degenerates into hair. 
Even if this change should not take place to its full extent in the in¬ 
dividual, it will infallibly do so in the course of one or two genera¬ 
tions. The sheep that we see covered with hair are not therefore 
in reality a different species from those that are woolly, nor is wool 
in its nature specifically different from hair—it is only a softer and 
finer kind of hair. ,The effect of heat is nearly the same on the 
hairs of other animals. The same species that in Russia, Siberia, 
and North America, produce the most beautiful and valuable furs, 
have nothing in the warmer climates, but a coarse and thin cover¬ 
ing of hair.”— British Husbandry. 
EX TRACTS. 
ON THE USE OF LIME AS A MANURE.—By M. Puvis. 
Translated for the Farmers’ Register from the Annates de l'Agriculture Fran- 
caise, of 1835 .—( Continued from page 8.5. ,1 
FLEMISH LIMING. 
13. The use of calcareous manures in the department of the North, as in 
Belgium, appears to be as old as good farming. It is now much less frequent 
in Belgium. The ancient and repeated limings have, as it seems, furnished 
to Great part of the soil all that is necessary to it, for the present. But the de¬ 
partment of the North still receives lime, marl, crashes, every where, or near¬ 
ly so, where lime is not a component ingredient of the soil. They distinguish 
in this country two kinds of liming. The first [chantage fonder ] consists in 
giving to the soil, every 10 or 12 years before seed time, four cubic metres, or 
40 hectolitres of lime to the hectare.* They often mix with the slaked lime, 
ashes of bituminous coal, or of peat, which enter into the mixture in the pro¬ 
portion of from a third io a half, and take the place of an equal quantity of 
[ lime. The other mode of liming [chantage cTassotement ], is given in compost, 
* 46 bushels to the acre, English or American measure.—Ta. 
