Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/696

Rh 656 WOOL approaches the Leicester class in some qualities, but is destitute of the latter s peculiar lustre, aud is shorter in staple, though strong in fibre, with good milling qualities, which render it valuable for the tweed manufacture. Intermediate between the long and short there are several British breeds, which have been established either by crosses or local conditions and treatment, the most im portant of these being found in Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Norfolk. The carpet wools are yielded by sheep of the type of the Blackface of the mountainous regions of Scotland, from which is obtained a fleece of long staple but somewhat unequal qualities. Much of the Highland wool is &quot; laid,&quot; that is, impregnated with tar, from the practice of the stock-masters of smearing the animals with a mixture of tar and fat immediately after shearing, with a view of protecting them from the rigours of the climate. Of wools of a special character there may be noted Welsh wool, which possesses properties fitting it pre-eminently for the making of the famed Welsh flannels, and Shetland wool, which being very fine and soft in its nature is almost entirely worked up into delicate yarns for knitting the well-known Shetland shawls and other knitted work. The weight of a fleece of wool of the various breeds of sheep ranges from under 2 Ib in the case of the small Shetland breeds up to 8 or 9 Ib for the large merinos and other heavy races, and in exceptional cases a heavy ram s fleece may reach so much as 15 Eb ; but, taken all over, sheep may be reckoned to yield on an average 5 Ib of wool in a year. Sheep Where there is abundance of water and other con mg&amp;gt; veniences it is the practice to wash or half-wash sheep previous to shearing, and such wool comes into the market as washed or half-washed fleece. The surface of a fleece has usually a thick coating of dirt adhering to it, and in the cases of merino breeds the fleece surface is firmly caked together into large solid masses, from the adhesion of dirt to the wool constantly moist with the exudation from the skin of the greasy yolk or &quot; suint,&quot; so that in an un washed fleece nearly 30 per cent, of weight may represent dirt, and about 40 per cent, the greasy suint which lubri cates the wool, while the pure wool is not more than one-third part of the whole. The yolk forms a protective covering to the sheep, rendering the fleece impervious to moisture, and while left in the wool also preserves it soft, pliant, and silky to touch. It forms a kind of natural soap, consisting principally of potash salts with animal oil, almost entirely soluble in cold water. The following analyses of German merino wool the variety in which suint is most largely developed illustrate the difference which may result in the composition of the fibre from the simple washing of the fleece on the sheep s back : Unwashed Merino. Washed Merino. Mineral matter 6 3 44-3 38-8 11-4 16-8 447 28-5 7-0 0-94 21 00 72-00 6-06 1-3 40 56-0 2-7 Suint and i atty matter ... Pure wool Moisture Wool, however, which is merely washed in the rough- and-ready manner described below still retains great and variable quantities of suint, &c. Where running streams exist, the sheep are penned by the side of the water, and taken one by one and held in the stream while they are washed, one man holding and the other washing. The operation is objectionable in many ways, as it pollutes the stream, and it dissipates no mean amount of potash salts, valuable for manure or for other chemical purposes. Sheep washing appliances are now largely employed, the arrangement consisting of a pen into which the sheep are driven and subjected to a strong spray of water either hot or cold, which soaks the fleece and softens the dirt. This done, they are caused to swim along a tank which narrows towards the exit, and just as they pass out of the pen they are caught and subjected to a strong douche of pure water. After a few days the wool of a washed sheep is sufficiently dry for shearing or clipping, which is there upon done. A skilful shepherd will clip the fleece from a sheep in Sheep one unbroken continuous sheet, retaining the form and snear ing relative positions of the mass almost as if the creature had been skinned. In this unbroken condition each fleece is rolled up by itself, which greatly facilitates the sorting or stapling which all wool undergoes for the separation of the several qualities which make up the fleece. Sorting or stapling was formerly a distinct industry, Wool and to some extent it is so still, though frequently the work stapling. is done in the premises of the spinners. Carding wools are separated and classed differently from combing wools, and in dealing with fleeces from different races the classifica tion of the sorter varies. In the woollen trade short-staple wool is separated into qualities, known, in descending series from the finest to the most worthless, as picklock, prime, choice, super, head, seconds, abb, and breech, and the pro portions in which the higher and lower qualities are present are determined by the qualities of the fleece or the race yielding the wool. In the worsted trade the classification goes, also in descending series, from fine, blue, neat, brown, breech, downright, seconds, to abb. The last three are short and not commonly used in the worsted trade. The greater proportion of good English long wool will be classified as blue, neat, and brown; it is only in exceptional cases that more than from 5 to 8 per cent, is &quot;fine&quot; on the one hand, or of lower quality than breech on the other. Generally speaking, the best portion of a fleece is from the shoulders and side of the animal (1 in fig. 2). The wool from 2 is irregular in growth, and often filled with burrs, &c. ; from the loin 3 it is shorter of staple and coarser, characters which become increas ingly pronounced as we approach the tail and hind quar ter 4. The belly Wool 5 is short, I &quot; IG - 2. Qualities of Fleece. worn, and dirty, as is also the front of the throat 6, while on the head and shins 7 the product is short, stiff, and straight, more like hair than wool. The sorter works at a table or frame covered with wire netting through which dust and dirt fall as he handles the wool. Fleeces which have been hard packed in bales, especially if unwashed, go into dense hard masses, which must be heated till the softening of the yolk and the swell ing of the fibres make them pliable and easily opened up. When the fleece is spread out the stapler first divides it into two equal sides; then he picks away all straws, large burrs, and tarry fragments which are visible ; and then with marvellous precision and certainty he picks out his separate qualities, throwing each lot into its allotted receptacle. Sorting is very far removed from being a mere mechanical process of selecting and separating the wool from certain regions of the fleece, because in each individual fleece qualities and proportions differ, and it is only by long experience that a stapler is enabled, almost as it were by instinct, rightly to divide up his lots, so as to produce even qualities of raw material. The washing which a fleece receives on the live sheep Scouring