sometimes under the direction of the manufac- 
turers who have purchased and are about to use the 
| wool, but more commonly by a class of persons 
called wool-staplers, who have qualified for their 
employment by a regular apprenticeship, and 
who purchase the raw material from the grower, 
and sell it in an assorted state to the manufac- 
turer. The operator unrols the fleece on a table, 
spreads it out full under aclear light, and, under 
the joint guidance of his sight and his touch, culls 
out successive locks of uniform fineness of fila- 
ment, and deposits them in a basket ; and he 
| assorts the whole into six or ten or, in some cases, 
| a greater number of kinds, and has beside him a 
separate basket for each kind, and goes through 
__ the whole process with a promptitude, accuracy, 
| and celerity which quite astonish the uninitiated. 
_ “Jn sorting wools,’ says M‘Culloch, “there are 
frequently eight or ten different species in a sin- 
gle fleece; and if the best wool of one fleece be 
not equal to the finest sort, it is thrown to a 
second, third, or fourth, or to a still lower sort, 
| of an equal degree of fineness with it. The best 
| English short native fleeces, such as the fine Nor- 
_ folk and Southdown, are generally divided by the 
| wool-sorter into the following sorts, all varying 
_ in fineness from each other,—viz., first, prime,— 
| second, choice,—third, super,—fourth, head,— 
| fifth, downrights,—sixth, seconds,—seventh, fine 
| abb,—eighth, coarse abb,—ninth, livery,—and 
tenth, short-coarse or brack wool.” But either 
| _ these divisions, or any others to a lesser or greater 
| 
| 
| 
j 
: 
| 
{ 
| 
| 
| 
| 
amount, would be far better designated by simple 
numerical names ; and all vary in their relative 
market value, according to the demand for re- 
spectively coarse, middle, and fine cloths. The 
| long wools, in an aggregate view, have a staple 
| of seven inches and upwards,—the middle wools, 
of from four to seven inches,—and the short 
wools, of from two to four inches. 
| he comparative properties of wool are very 
vaguely expressed by the epithets coarse and 
fine, or by any other two or three general words; 
and they have been somewhat better designated 
| as follows, by Arthur Young, in the order in 
which they are esteemed and preferred by 
|| the manufacturer :—“ First, fineness with close 
| ground, that is, thick-matted ground; second, 
| fineness; third, straight-haired, when broken by 
drawing; fourth, elasticity, rising after com- 
pression in the hand; fifth, staple not too long; 
sixth, colour; seventh, what coarse is in it to be 
very coarse; eighth, tenacity; ninth, not much 
pitch mark, but this is no other disadvantage 
_| than the less of weight in scouring. The bad or 
_ disagreeable properties are,—thin, grounded, 
|| toppy, curly haired, and, if in a sorted state, little 
| that is very fine, a tender staple, no elasticity, 
| inany dead-white hairs, very yolky. Those who 
|, buy wool for combing and other light goods that 
| do not want milling, wish to find length of staple, 
| fineness of hair, whiteness, tenacity, firmness, 
| | elasticity, and not too many pitch-marks.” Ano- 
WOOL. 
ties may be made into soundness, length, clean- 
ness, colour, softness, and feltability. Soundness 
arises from the healthy condition and proper 
feeding of the animal, and comprises uniformity, 
flexibility, and kindliness of the pile, but per- 
fectly comports with wide diversity of the other 
properties correspondent to the different families 
and breeds of sheep. Length or shortness or any 
medium between the two must be variously suit- 
able according to the different purposes of the 
manufacturer, but ought always to be uniform in 
the same specimen, or at least as nearly so as 
will comport with a due regard to the assort- 
ment of the other properties. Cleanness, though 
mainly desirable for preventing expense and loss 
767 
ther, clearer, and shorter classification of proper- 
in the process of scouring, is desirable also for | 
its appreciable conservation of soundness and 
softness; and it requires that no dirty or discol- 
ouring ingredient be employed in salving, that as 
little as possible of any ochreous substance should 
ever get into the shepherd’s or store-master’s 
| possession, and that the living flock, as well as 
the separated fleece, should be kept aloof from 
whatever might pollute them. Colour is impor- 
tant because wool excels cotton and linen and 
even silk in taking on bright and beautiful hues 
in the process of dyeing,—and because white 
wool receives the colouring matter more readily 
than black, and clear white wool more readily 
than creamy-coloured or brownish or dingy,— 
and because any mixture of black filaments with 
the white mars the harmony of the dye, and 
renders the whole specimen unsuitable for the re- 
ception of the brighter and more delicate hues, 
Softness has been raised to paramount impor- 
tance by the demands of fashion; and depends 
partly on the minuteness of the fibres, partly on 
the combination of soundness and feltability, and 
partly on the abundance and tenuity of the lu- 
bricating yolk ; and it more or less comprises or 
includes the two properties which Arthur Young 
and many other popular nomenclators call fine- 
ness and elasticity. What we have designated 
feltability is the most curious of all the proper- 
ties; and is identical to a certain extent with 
what is popularly called fineness, but still more 
so with a peculiar and very beautiful structure of 
the filaments quite recently discovered ; and may | | 
be well understood from the following account of 
it by Mr. Spooner :—“ The felting property and | 
other qualities of different wools have long been 
made known by practical experience ; but we are 
indebted to Mr. Youatt for the discovery, that 
the felting property depended in a great measure 
on the number of serrations on its surface. This 
gentleman, after several laborious attempts, at 
length succeeded, with the assistance of a power- 
ful achromatic microscope andits scientific maker, 
in developing the singular structure of wool and 
the difference between wools of different quali- 
ties. Hach fibre was found to consist of a nuin- 
ber of leaves attached to a central stem or band, 
—_—— 
