1 Noy., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. i 451 
If a lot of twine were covered with stiff bristles, let them be ever so short, it 
would not entangle so readily. That such bristly string, if once entangled, 
would be more difficult to disentangle again is quite likely, but we have not to 
deal with that. We require to entangle the wool fibres thoroughly and quickly 
in the first instance ; and for that purpose the single fibres must run smoothly 
along each other, so as to get thoroughly interlooped. 
Professor Beaumont, of the Leeds College, in referring to the serrations 
or, properly speaking, the fine edges of the cuticle scales covering the wool hair, 
says: “Saxon wool—possibly the finest, softest, silkiest, and in many particulars 
one of the best wools grown, and moreover a wool of acknowledged superior 
milling power—contains not less than from 2,700 to 2,800 serrations (i.e, cuticle 
scales) in Linch. Australian, another excellent clothing wool of good milling 
property, contains 2,400, while Leicester wool, of comparatively inferior felting 
quality, only contains 1,800 serrations, in 1 inch of fibre.” Generally, it will 
be found that the felting property is the highest in wools containing the largest 
number of imbrications, but there are exceptional fibres. Cape wool, for 
example, although fine in‘hair and full of serrations, is not a good milling. wool. 
According to the microscope, its fibres possess all the characteristics of # wool 
of excellent felting powers, whereas, practically, it is regarded as only a secondary 
wool in this respect. Port Philip and Buenos Ayres wools might be instanced 
us two other fibres which would, if the milling characteristics depended entirely 
on the multiplicity of serrations in a given length of fibre, be similar to each 
other in this particular. But, instead of this being the case, they are almost 
as different in felting power as it is possible for the produce of the same genus 
of animals to be. Port Philip is almost without parallel in the point of fulling 
property, while the defectiveness of Buenos Ayres in this essential may be said 
to be proverbial. If the “serrated edge” entirely fails to be the means of good 
felting in some instances, that property cannot be ascribed to it. 
or these and other reasons I think we must look for the causes of the 
felting property elsewhere. So much is certain: That a strongly pronounced 
serration must militate against smoothness—a quality which is, particularly 
with regard to combing wools, even more desirable than the felting property. 
Smoothness and felting, however, are quite compatible with each other, as is 
shown in the finest Saxon, Silesian and Australian wools. If we were to sacrifice 
smoothness in order to obtain a more serrated edge, and by so doing obtain 
greater felting property, we should do a very foolish thing, 
The phenomenon of felting might reasonably be accounted for through the 
following circumstances: 1. The extremely hygroscopic nature of the wool fibre 
—i.e., its readiness to absorb and to part with moisture. 2. To the elastic 
nature of the cortical substance, and its inclination to assume a waved form. 3. 
The smoothness of different kinds of hair, especially of the wool fibre. 
The conditions of good felting property are dormant in the substance of the 
cortical substance. They are a matter of individuality, and must be bred for. 
Even the most elastic wools will readily lose all their springiness if brought 
into contact , with hot water. Having thus become extremely pliable, any 
mechanical action will soon entangle them very intimately with each other, 
particularly if the free motion of them is facilitated through the addition of a 
slippery material like soap, which in the meantime tends to dissolve and remove 
any particles of the yolk that might beinthe way. We thus deprive the wool of 
its elasticity in the first instance, so as to allow a complete entanglement. After 
these now unelastic, pliable, slippery hairs have thoroughly entangled themselves, 
let the mass be dried ; the natural elasticity will then return, and you will have 
before you a close, dense combination of hairs, which are placed in such a 
disorderly position that they cannot be taken out of it again unless by means of 
force, calculated to break or otherwise destroy them, and this is the definition I 
gave of the term “felt.” All that the breeder has to look for is a combination 
of great elasticity with pliability and smoothness of surface, which will guarantee 
all the felting property which a valuable wool is expected to show. 
