the extremity or points of the wool, which, if 
suffered to remain, would tend to discolour it. 
The skins, however, remain on the poles until 
the pores are partially relaxed, which may be 
ascertained by trying to separate the wool from 
the skin, as it will leave the pelt when in a pro- 
per state of preparation. The skins are then 
placed in an enclosed shed or warehouse, from 
which the air is excluded, and each skin sus- 
| pended by the nostril or nose to afford greater 
facility in the operation of pulling. Before this 
commences, a lad is usually employed to cut off 
the pitch orany hard substance that may adhere 
to the skin, taking care not to shorten the wool. 
Previous to the operation of pulling being com- 
menced, the skins should be inspected and as- 
| sorted somewhat after the following method :— 
Those which are found deteriorated with kemp, 
or dead hairs intermixed with the wool, or mark- 
ed with party colours, should be laid aside by 
themselves and kept separate from those which 
are entirely white. It would, in fact, be advisa- 
ble, where the skins are numerous, to separate 
those which produce long wool from others of a 
shorter growth, as each class of wool is by the 
manufacturer applied to different purposes. There 
are very few party-coloured sheep in English 
flocks, and not many interspersed with dead or 
kemp and black hairs. When any perchance do 
appear, they should be separated from the rest, 
and their wool kept distinct, any intermixture 
being extremely detrimental to the consumer, 
who carefully avoids buying objectionable wool, 
except at low prices; and to this minute atten- 
tion should be paid by all those who aim at pro- 
ducing skin wool of an approved quality. The 
coarse hairy parts about the legs should in like 
manner be first withdrawn and thrown aside, 
being entirely useless to the English manufac- 
turer and injurious to his interest. When the 
skins have been properly limed and folded, in 
the course of two or three days, when the wea- 
ther is warm, they are generally in a fit state to 
be pulled, which being done, the wool should be 
placed in a loft or open warehouse, and exposed 
to a free current of air to dry and become fit for 
packing, as otherwise it might be discoloured by 
heat, or even ignited. During a wet season, or 
in the winter months, the skinner usually has re- 
course to an enclosed warehouse, heated by iron 
pipes raised perpendicularly from the floor, in 
which a large fire is made of coke. These pipes 
are passed through the several floors where wool 
is exposed for drying ; and at periods when the 
sun does not afford sufficient warmth to the at- 
mosphere, it is customary to place the skins in 
an artificial heat of this kind, which proves a 
substitute for the sun’s rays, and prepares the 
skin for the process of being pulled. The Eng- 
lish fellmonger draws out the wool from the pelt 
by hand, the men placing the skins before them 
on an inclined board, but has occasionally re- 
course to the aid of an implement called a pull- | 
ing-knife, which the operator uses in order to 
assist him in removing the wool from those parts 
of the skin which have not been sufficiently de- 
composed, owing to their not being so equally 
saturated as the rest. The skins, after being 
divested of their wool, are usually placed in a pit 
or vat filled with lime-water of a moderate de- 
gree of strength, compared with that usually ap- 
plied to skins with the wool attached to them. 
There they remain two or three days, for the 
purpose of extracting any portion of the grease 
usually found attached to the pelt. Thence they 
are removed by long iron tongs to a stronger so- 
lution of lime-water, and daily drawn up and ex- 
posed to the air for several hours during the day, 
but out of the sun’s rays in hot weather. They 
are then again thrown into the prepared liquid, 
care being taken to stir up the water previous 
to their immersion. In this state they continue 
three or four weeks, or are disposed of in the 
intermediate time to leathersellers, parchment- 
makers, or glue-manufacturers, according to their 
various sizes and condition.” 
The wool of the different races, families, and 
breeds of domesticated sheep differs sa widely 
in comparative length of staple as to have occa- 
sioned them to be classified into short-woolled, 
middle-woolled, and long-woolled,—and differs 
also so widely in comparative softness and ten-. 
uity as to have caused them to be classified into 
coarse-woolled, medium-woolled, and fine-woolled. 
See the article Suzzp. But the wool of any one 
breed differs both in length and in fineness, as 
well as in other properties, according to the cir- 
cumstances of climate and pasture and treatment 
in which the breed is reared and maintained ; 
and the wool of each individual of every breed, 
in all circumstances, has somewhat widely differ- 
ent properties in different parts of the body. The 
wool of the most steady climate, the most con- 
genial pastures, and the most judicious manage- 
ment, is always bulkier and finer than that of 
inclement districts, irregular feeding, and bad 
store husbandry ; the wool of light arenaceous or 
calcareous sheep-walks has always a cleaner tex- 
ture and a purer colour than that of such soils 
as those of some parts of Gloucestershire, which 
impart to it an orange tinge, or that of such soils 
as those of some parts of Hertfordshire and War- 
wickshire, which give it a brownish hue, or that 
of such districts as the fens of Lincolnshire and 
Cambridgeshire, which give it a dark blue tint ; 
and the wool of the shoulders, back, and sides of 
any individual sheep, is finer than that of the 
upper part of the thighs, the upper part of the 
legs, and the parts extending thence toward 
nearly the haunch and the tail,—and the wool 
of these parts, again, is finer than that of the 
upper part of the neck, the throat, the breast, 
the belly, and the lower part of the legs. The 
separating and assorting of the different quali- 
ties, whether from one fleece or from a collection 
of fleeces, is a nice process of art, and is performed 
en 
