12 SHEEP IN GREAT BRITAIN & HER COLONIES. considered to vary from year to year as much as from a quarter to half a pound per fleece, according to the seasons and breed. The average weight of the clip of half-breds is from 5 to 7 lbs., of Leicesters 7 to 8 lbs. Some of the large breeds in Gloucester and Somerset will weigh 7 lbs., and in Devon and Cornwall, unwashed fleeces 7 lbs. In the East Riding of Yorkshire a large breed with deep staple and bright hair weighs 8 lbs. The average weight for Wales and Scotland is 4 lbs. The Irish fleece ranges from 6 to 6 lbs. Allowance should be made, in all wools unwashed or in the grease, of one third in weight for clean wool. The quantity as well as the quality of the wool yielded by the sheep varies much with the breed, the climate, the food, and consequently with the soil on which the food is grown. The Hereford sheep, which are kept lean, and give the finest wool, yield only 1 to 2 lbs. of washed wool, while a Merino will often give a fleece weighing three times that amount. The following figures give the number of sheep officially returned in the United Kingdom and principal British Colonies for the year 1874 CHARACTERISTICS OF WOOL. 13 As regards the number of sheep, Russia exceeds the United Kingdom proper, having 48,000,000 head; the United States approximate closely to Great Britain in the number; whilst the other principal European pastoral countries stand as follows, in round figures:-France, 24,600,000; Spain, 22,000,000; Prussia, 19,600,000; Hungary, 14,000,000; and Italy 7,000,000. LORD CHESHAM'S SHROPSHIRE, SHOWN AT CROYDON, 1875. CHARACTERISTICS OF WOOL.-Wool resembles hair in many of its peculiarities; the chief point of difference being, that while the surface of the latter is smooth, that of the former is imbricated, a quality upon which the felting power of wool depends. This difference is not, however, perceptible to the naked eye or touch; indeed it would be very difficult to point out any perceptible qualities distinctive of the two substances. The bristles of the hog and the fine wool of the lamb can readily be distinguished from one another, for these are the extreme examples of the two substances; but in many cases hair and wool pass so completely into each other, that it is often impossible to mark the line of demarcation; and they have the same chemical composition. $4 CHARACTERISTICS OF WOOL. The importance of the industrial employments of wool can scarcely be overrated. The pelage of mammiferous animals is composed of various kinds of hair, the most important of which are silky hairs and woolly hairs, and according to various circumstances the one or the other of these varieties predominates. The physiological conditions of age, sex, food, and climate serve to vary the quality of the fleeces. It is therefore well to study the characters of the hairs employed in manufactures, especially the woolly ones, by ascertaining their length, diameter, elasticity, etc., under the microscope. Thus examined we shall find that wool presents fine transverse or oblique lines (an inch containing from 2,000 to 4,000), which indicate an imbricated scaly surface. This characteristic, and the twisted form of fine wool, are the qualities which make it valuable for manufactures. It has been well observed by Dr. Crisp that the coverings of animals are wonderfully adapted to the climates and elements which they inhabit. Thus we have a warm thick fur in the extreme northern zone, a woolly coat for the sheep in the temperate regions, a thin hairy covering in the tropics-in the air the light and beautiful feather-in the water the crust or scale. What armourer could make a coat of mail to equal that in which the armadillo is invested? how well it protects the animal from the weapons of its assailants. The common impression is that wool is confined to the sheep, but experience shows that a great variety of other animals produce it also, and that under the long hair of the goat, for example, there will generally be found a certain amount of true wool; and we might go even further, and consider that, with very few exceptions, the external covering of all mammalian animals is a variable mixture of hair and wool. Of the two extreme contrasts of hair produced on domesticated animals, one is rigid, shining, coarse, well fixed. It is the "jarre" which exists nearly alone in the ordinary conditions of the horse and the ox. The other hair or down, hidden under the first, is CHARACTERISTICS OF WOOL. 15 distinguished by being more curled and tangled, and more dull than the jarre, and also much finer. It is the "wool" which exists nearly alone in the Merino sheep and in the Cashmere goats. Wool is greatly preferred to the jarre by the manufacturer, because it is much finer, curls more readily, and is found bristling with little scaly asperities (due to its mode of development) which render it more adapted for felting and the manufacture of tissues. From the coats of sheep, goats, rabbits, etc., the coarse and rigid hair is carefully removed. Wool, we find, is not then peculiar to the sheep, but forms an undercoat beneath the long hair in very many animals. Articles for clothing have been made from the wool of the musk-ox of North America, and from the wool of the ibex of Little Thibet; but in these and other such instances, they have been produced as objects of curiosity rather than for any commercial purpose. In the sheep, judicious management has in the course of years increased the growth of wool, and rendered the occurrence of hair unusual. Wherever attention has been paid to sheep-breeding, there a marked improvement has been manifested in the particular direction in which the improvement has been sought, whether in the carcase or in the fleece. The sheep produces the finest quality of wool in the warmer temperate and sub-tropical zones only. |
