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application for the direct purpose of ameliorating [meliorating] the wool, has in no one instance, that I know of, been resorted to; nor has the principle whence its benefit would arise, been understood or explained." This practice is neither more nor less than the use of an "ungent." Had Mr. Bakewell read our review of Mr. Luccock's Treatise, he certainly would not have hazarded the above assertion. In the Antijacobin Review for February 1806 it is stated, that smearing sheep with a mixture of tar and grease, is no less comfortable to the animal than advantageous to the quality of the pile;" and that "this covering retaining the insensible perspiration, prevents all evaporation from the body of the animal." Here the practice is recommended, and the principle on which it is founded explained, above two years and a half before the appearance of Mr. Bakewell's book; we believe, indeed, that pages 143 and 144 of the volume and month above mentioned contain nearly every practical idea which occurs in our author's observations; and most of them are explained on principles more consonant to nature than the speculations before us. We submit it therefore to Mr. Bakewell, if an author should not make himself previously acquainted with what has been written on any subject, before he attempts to publish his own observations, which may have been often made before. We shall, however, for the interest of our manufactures and sheep-breeders, extract the principal facts which the author considers important and useful.

Two of his five chapters are dedicated to explain the nature and causes of "the soft and hard qualities of wool.” The hardness of wool, which is rightly considered as distinct from the fineness of the pile, he ascribes in general to lime, where the sheep depasture on chalk soils, or even on marble or limestone. This fact is sufficiently obvious; and it cannot for a moment he doubted, that wherever sheep lie often on chalk, pulverised limestone or marble, Fuller's-earth or gypsum, these substances will absorb much of the natural moisture necessary to the preservation of the wool, and will consequently render it harder, and brittler, and less disposed to felt. Mr. Bakewell's observations, although made on different soils, have not extended to marle, Fuller'searth, and gypsum, although the latter is well known to be highly injurious to wool in Spain; and in those provinces or districts in which it abounds, especially in Arragon, no fine-woolled sheep are bred. As to the author's modestly-enough termed "conjecture," that wool (as well

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as hair, feathers, and horn) is an "animal excrescence, composed of albumen differently modified by the secreting vessels," he probably confounds albumen with gelatin. The supposition that the "absorption of oxygen near the surface of the skin," may contribute to the formation of the wool, is a mere play upon words, which have become useful to philosophical juggling. As we were advocates for the practice of greasing and cotting long before our author, we most willingly subjoin his additional recommendations of a system which carries with it positive and direct advantages, not only to the sheep-breeder, but also to the consumer of inutton, the clothier, and the weaver of cloth.

66

Investigation" (observes Mr. Bakewell) "has enabled me to state as a general position, that, by the application of a well-chosen unguent, wool may be defended from the action of the soil and elements, and improved more than can be effected by any other means, except an entire change of breed. Not only will the quality of the wool be ensured by this practice, but it will become finer, and the quantity will be increased: it is also found to preserve the sheep in situations where they would inevitably perish, without this defence. Where the practice of greasing the sheep has prevailed, the great quantity of tar which was always combined with the unguent, prevented the advantages of its application to the wool from being discovered; and the breed of sheep on which it is most practised, is naturally the worst which exist in Britain for the production of wool. It is only in Northumberland, and in some parts of the neighbouring counties, that flocks of fine-woolled sheep have received the benefit of greasing with a mixture, in which the tar used was merely sufficient to give it tenacity. The ignorance or the selfishness of the wool-buyers, for a long time prevented the acknowledgement of the advantage which the wool received from the ointment. Many were afraid to purchase it, from the extra weight of grease in the fleece, and made its dirty appearance a pretence for reducing the price below what ought to have been allowed for the weight of the ointment it contained. The nature of this wool is now better understood: when sorted, it is purchased by the manufacturers of coloured cloth in preference to any other. The same preference is given to the cloths when sold in an unfinished state, in the Yorkshire cloth-halls, and they always have a ready sale, whatever may be the general depression of trade.

"When these cloths are finished, their superiority is still more apparent. I am informed from authority which I cannot doubt, that many cloths, made from greased Northumberland wool, have been sold as cloths made from good Spanish wool, and have equalled them in their texture and softness: ungreased wools equally fine, and manufactured in the same way, would have made a cloth, the value of which would not have equalled the former by at least thirty per cent."

P. 33.

It is unnecessary that we should notice the author's

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attempt to explain the nature of these effects, as we have before stated that the ointment being a non-conductor, prevented the escape of heat, and consequently kept the animal in a uniform temperature as well as in a healthy the sure means of having fine and strong fleeces. Mr. Bakewell, however, very properly corrects Luccock for saying that the practice of anointing sheep "is not necessary to the health of the flock, or the good quality of the fleece; "the reverse of which is true. Our author's directions for the application of the ointment are judicions and just.

"Some skill is required in the application of the ointment, the ignorance of which has prevented the extension of the operation in many places. If the ointment be merely rubbed on the wool, it collects in the top of the staple, attracts and mixes with the soil, and is rather injurious than beneficial to the fleece. The proper method is to divide the staples with one hand, and apply the ointment to the skin with the finger of the other hand, by which means the ointment is kept constantly soft by the warmth of the skin, and is equally diffused through the fleece.

Attention to this

trifling circumstance is of the greatest importance to the success of this practice. The quantity of the mixture laid upon the sheep, varies with the size of the animal, and the practice of different farmers. In the lighter mode of greasing, one gallon of tar and twenty pounds of butter will be sufficient for forty-five or fifty sheep. Some piles of fine fleeces from Scotland, which I have lately seen, have been greased in the improper manner here described, by laying the ointment upon the wool, instead of applying it close to the skin: the benefit of the application is thus lost to the wool, and the upper part of the staple rendered useless. An inspection of a few fleeces greased in the best and worst manner, would prove most clearly the advantages of this practice, and how its misapplication might be avoided." P. 51.

Mr. Bakewell, indeed, is grievously at a loss to know how to make a serviceable ointment, as tar injures the colour of the wool, and olive oil and butter only are not sufficiently tenacious. To obviate this, he recommends the substitution of the expensive article of bees'-wax for tar. We can teach him, however, to make a cheaper and more efficacious ointment than any which he mentions, or which we believe has hitherto been used, except under the direction of the writer. It is composed of good spermaceti oil, either boiled. or burnt till it attains a consistency and tenacity sufficient to cover and adhere to the skin and wool of the animal. If it is too thick, butter, lard, oil, or goose-grease, may

be added to it. An ointment* thus prepared will be found greatly superior to any preparation of tar or bees'-wax, and it has the additional advantage of not affecting the colour of the wool, or being too difficult to scour. It is also neces

sary that we should in every practicable case use either the produce of our own country or that of our colonies--a principle which the use of this preparation happily supports. The general application, as recommended by Mr. Bakewell, of a thin ointment to the skin of the sheep immediately after sheering, and another thicker one at the approach of winter, we are persuaded from experience would not only increase the quantity and improve the quality of the English fleece, but also save the lives of great numbers of sheep, which would be not a little advantageous to our meat-markets. From the author's observations, he concludes;

"That the hard quality found in some wool, prevents it from making cloth of the same value as the softer wools, if the former are considerably finer than the latter. That the application of unctuous matter sufficiently soft and tenacious to cover and remain upon the fleece, will defend it from the action of the soil, and is found to produce the soft' quality of wool so desirable to the manufacturer. Hence the greased fine wools of Northumberland and Yorkshire, possess a superior degree of softness to any ungreased wools in the kingdom. Hence sheep that have received the benefit of this practice, and are driven into other counties not remarkable for soft wools, still preserve the distinguishing softness of their fleece. Hence we learn the reason why ointments, when casually employed to cure some disease of the animal, have also generally been found beneficial to the wool.

"If these facts and inferences be admitted, we may also infer, that an improved method of greasing fine-woolled sheep should be adopted in every part of the kingdom, and that it would greatly improve the quality of the wool, and annually save many thousand sheep from perishing by the severity of the climate."

P. 62.

We object in toto to the project of washing sheep with alkaline lees, or adopting in our climate the method used in Sweden: the reasons must be sufficiently obvious. The author asserts (p.88.), what we previously adduced in nearly the same terms, "that in proportion to the regularity of the temperature in which sheep are kept, and to the regular supply of nourishment they receive, will the hair or fibre of the

* In cases where the fleece is much exposed to calcareous earth, or to be torn by thorns or bushes, a little common resin may be added to the prepared oil to give it greater tenacity. - Rev.

wool preserve a regular, even degree of fineness." We stated, in examining Mr. Luccock's volume, that "a temperate regular habit of life is the most advantageous to the animal economy, and consequently the most likely to effect that uniform elongation of the laminous filaments, or laminous tubes, which produces the finest and strongest pile." The reader will perceive the identity of the propositions. The South-sea seal produces wool, which, being buried under coarse hair, was long neglected. It is now, we are told, manufactured into cloth and shawls by Messrs. Fryers of Rastrick, near Halifax: these shawls exceed in softness those of Persia, India, or even of Cashmire. Mr. Bakewell says he has seen wool from Buenos Ayres, some of the staples of which measured 20 inches. The following appeal does honour to the author's head and heart; and although we fear that humanity will not, yet we trust that a proper sense of their own interest will, make farmers attend to his remonstrance, after two such severe winters in succession.

"Both interest and humanity call upon the farmers to provide some shelter for their flocks during the severity of winter. I trust the efforts which Lord Somerville has for some time made to awaken the northern farmers from their supineness, will not be in vain. It is not only in the northern counties, but in every part of our island that more attention is required to provide occasional shelter against the inclemencies of the climate, both for sheep and all other animals which are exposed in the fields. In proportion as they are made comfortable, will be their tendency to improve; and it is not only our interest, but every humane man must feel it a duty, to provide for the comfort of those animals which are entrusted to his care. In the northern districts such attention seems absolutely necessary. The farmers in the midland and southern counties can scarcely form an idea of the tremendous wintery storms which sweep over the Cheviot hills, and the wild fells of Cumberland and Westmorland, or the still bleaker mountains of Scotland. At such times the heavens are darkened with descending snows, and sleet driven by furious gusts of wind, which compel the sheep to seek protection in hollows and glens near the bottom of the mountain. Suddenly an impetuous blast uplifts whole fields of snow from its shelving sides above, and driving aloft in tumultuous whirl, precipitates the contents on the miserable flock, which are in a moment buried deep under the surface. In vain may the shepherd try to trace them over a driving expanse of snow: were he to attempt it he might share the fate of his flock. But all effort of this kind is fruitless; for the summits, the sides, and the very base of the mountain, are involved in tempests and a night of clouds," which bury every object in impenetrable gloom. Sometimes these immense volumes of rolling vapour dispart, and open for a few moments to disclose the horrors of the scene. The shepherd, No. 128. Vol. 32. Feb. 1809.

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