Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1876 — Judging Wool. [ARTICLE]

Judging Wool.

Mast farmers have been annoyed, when selling their wool to find that the scute and practiced eye of the wool-buyer has detected the fact that their sheep have been allowed to run down in condition at some time during the growth of the fleece. They are half inclined to think that the buyer is merely trying to depreciate the quality of the wool, so as to run down the !»rice. As a matter of fact, however, there s no defect which renders wool so useless for certain classes of manufacture as unevenness or break of continuity, in the thickness of the fiber—and there is no defect more common, and' nothing that, year by year, touches the sheep-grower more severely in that tender part of his anatomy, the pocket. However good the wool in other respects, the keen eye of the buyer singles out the defective wool, and down goes the price of it. And it is not mere fancy that regulates the price, for the uneven wool will break at the weak places during the first process of manufacture.

Some persons suppose that this unevenness of fleece is hereditary in certain ani mals—and perhaps unevenness may be made hereditary by generations of illusage and neglect. But as the wool of an entire flock Is found to be uneven one year, and not so in another, it shows that management has more to do with it than heredity. If sheep are allowed to. get into low condition, are neglected, underfed or not sheltered properly, the pores of the skin will contract and the wool that issues will be of very fine fiber. As soon as the animal recovers a vigorous condition the pores again open, and a longer and stronger fiber grows out. The wool is thus weaker in one place than in places on esch side of it, and breaks at the weak place on the slightest strain. Nothing induces unevenness more easily or surely than want of water. It is a common notion that sheep can do without water, or very little. If supplied with roots daily they will not want much water, but it is weft, and humane, too, that water should always be in their reach. Not only is it important that the fiber should be even, but the fleece throughout should be eveu as regards length, softness, density and fineness. A practiced wool-buyer gives the following description oT the-way an expert examines a fleece: Always assuming that the wool to be inspected is really a fine wool, we first examine the shoulder at the part where the finest and best wool is usually found. This we take as to the standard, and compare it with, in turn, the wool from the ribs, the thigh, the rump and the hinder parts; and the nearer the wool from these various portions of the animal approaches the standard, the better. First, we scrutinize the fineness; and if the result be satisfactory, we pronounce the fleece, in respect to fineness, very “even.” Next we inquire into the length of the staple; and if we find that the wool on thej ribs, thigh and back, approximates rea-; sonably in length to thacof our standard,, we again declare the sheep, as regards. length of staple, true and even. We next desire to satisfy ourselves of the density of the fleece; and we do this by closing the hand upon a portion of the rump and of the loin wool, the fleece at these points being usually the thinnest, and faulty; and If this again give satisfaction, we signify the fact by designating the wool “even” as respects density. Now to summarize these separate examinations; Tt you find the fleece of nearly equal fineness from the shoulder to the thigh; of nearly equaljength.at the shoulder, rib, thigh and back; and of eqnal density at thq shoulder and across the loins—you may conclude that you hare a nearly perfect sheep. —Toronto Globe.