The felting property of wool is the most important, as well as the distinguishing one; but it varies essentially in different breeds, and the usefulness and the consequent value of the fleece, for clothing purposes, at least, depend on the degree to which it is pursued.
_The serrated_--notched, like the teeth of a saw--_edge_ of wool, which has been discovered by means of the microscope, is also, as well as the spiral curl, deemed an important quality in the felting property.
Repeated microscopic observations have removed all doubts as to the general outline of the woolly fibre. It consists of a central stem or stalk, probably hollow, or, at least, porous, possessing a semi-transparency, not found in the fibre of hair. From this central stalk there springs, at different distances, on different breeds of sheep, a circlet of leaf-shaped projections.
LONG WOOL.
The most valuable of the long-woolled fleeces are of British origin. A considerable quant.i.ty is produced in France and Belgium; but the manufacturers in those countries acknowledge the superiority of the British wool. Long wool is distinguished, as its name would import, by the length of its staple, the average of which is about eight inches.
It was much improved, of late years, both in England and in other countries. Its staple has, without detriment to its manufacturing qualities, become shorter; but it has also become finer, truer, and sounder. The long-woolled sheep has been improved more than any other breed; and the princ.i.p.al error which Bakewell committed having been repaired since his death, the long wool has progressively risen in value, at least for curling purposes. Some of the breeds have staples of double the length that has been mentioned as the average one. Pasture and breeding are the powerful agents here.
Probably because the Leicester blood prevails in, or, at least, mingles with, every other long-woolled breed, a great similarity in the appearance and quality of this fleece has become apparent, of late years, in every district of England. The short-woolled fleeces are, to a very considerable degree, unlike in fineness, elasticity, and felting property; the sheep themselves are still more unlike; but the long-wools have, in a great degree, lost their distinctive points--the Lincoln, for example, has not all of his former gaunt carca.s.s, and coa.r.s.e, entangled wool--the Cotswold has become a variety of the Leicester--in fact, all the long-woolled sheep, both in appearance and fleece, have almost become of one variety; and rarely, except from culpable neglect in the breeder, has the fleece been injuriously weakened, or too much shortened, for the most valuable purposes to which it is devoted.
In addition to its length, this wool is characterized by its strength, its transparency, its comparative stoutness, and the slight degree in which it possesses the felting property. Since the extension of the process of combing to wools of a shorter staple, the application of this wool to manufacturing purposes has undergone considerable change.
In some respects, the range of its use has been limited; but its demand has, on the whole, increased, and its value is more highly appreciated.
Indeed, there are certain important branches of the woollen manufacture, such as worsted stuffs, bombazines, muslin-delaines, etc., in which it can never be superseded; and its rapid extension in the United States, within the past few years, clearly shows that a large and increasing demand for this kind of wool will continue at remunerating prices.
This long wool is cla.s.sed under two divisions, distinguished both by length and the fineness of the fibre. The first--_the long-combing wool_--is used for the manufacture of hard yarn, and the worsted goods for which that thread is adapted, and requires the staple to be long, firm, and little disposed to felt. _The short-combing wool_ has, as its name implies, a shorter staple, and is finer and more felty; the felt is also closer and softer, and is chiefly used for hosiery goods.
MIDDLE WOOL.
This article is of more recent origin than the former, but has rapidly increased in quant.i.ty and value. It can never supersede, but will only stand next in estimation to, the native English long fleece. It is yielded by the half-bred sheep--a race that becomes more numerous every year--being a cross of the Leicester ram with the South-Down, or some other short-woolled ewe; retaining the fattening property and the early maturity of the Leicester, or of both; and the wool deriving length and straightness of fibre from the one, and fineness and feltiness from the other. The average length of staple is about five inches. There is no description of the finer stuff-goods in which this wool is not most extensively and advantageously employed; and the nails, or portions which are broken off by the comb, and left in, whether belonging to this description of wool or to the long wool, are used in the manufacture of several species of cloth of no inferior quality or value.
Under the breed of middle wools must be cla.s.sed those which, when there were but two divisions, were known by the name of short wools; and if English productions were alone treated of, would still retain the same distinctive appellation. To this cla.s.s belong the South-Down and Cheviot; together with the fleece of several other breeds, not so numerous, nor occupying so great an extent of country. From the change, however, which insensibly took place in them all--the lengthening, and the increased thickness of the fibre, and, more especially, from the gradual introduction of other wools possessing delicacy of fibre, pliability, and felting qualities beyond what these could claim, and at the same time, being cheaper in the market--they lost ground in the manufacture of the finer cloths, and have for some time ceased to be used in the production of them. On the other hand, the changes which have taken place in the construction of machinery have multiplied the purposes to which they may be devoted, and very considerably enhanced their value.
These wools, of late, rank among the combing wools; they are prepared as much by the comb as by the card, and in some places more. On this account they meet with a readier sale, at fair, remunerating prices, considering the increased weight of each individual fleece, and the increased weight and earlier maturity of the carca.s.s. The South-Downs yield about seven-tenths of the pure short wools grown in the British kingdoms; but the half-bred sheep has, as has been remarked, encroached on the pure short-woolled one. The average staple of middle-woolled sheep is three and a half inches.
These wools are employed in the manufacture of flannels, army and navy cloths, coatings, heavy cloths for calico printers and paper manufacturers, woollen cords, coa.r.s.e woollens, and blankets; besides being partially used in ca.s.sinettes, baizes, bockings, carpets, druggets, etc.
SHORT WOOL.
From this division every wool of English production is excluded. These wools, yielded by the Merinos, are employed, unmixed, in the manufacture of the finer cloths, and, combined with a small proportion of wool from the English breeds, in others of an inferior value. The average length of staple is about two and a half inches.
These wools even may be submitted to the action of the comb. There may be fibres only one inch in length; but if there are others from two and a half to three inches, so that the average of the staple shall be two inches, a thread sufficiently tenacious may, from the improved state of machinery, be spun, and many delicate and beautiful fabrics readily woven, which were unknown not many years ago.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CROSSING AND BREEDING
No one breed of sheep combines the highest perfection in all those points which give value to this race of animals. One is remarkable for the weight, or early maturity, or excellent quality of its carca.s.s, while it is deficient in quality or quant.i.ty of wool; and another, which is valuable for wool, is comparatively deficient in carca.s.s. Some varieties will flourish only under certain conditions of food and climate; while others are much less affected by those conditions, and will subsist under the greatest variations of temperature, and on the most opposite qualities of verdure.
In selecting a breed for any given locality, reference should be had, _first_, to the feed and climate, or the surrounding natural circ.u.mstances; and, _second_, to the market facilities and demand.
Choice should then be made of that breed which, with the advantages possessed, and under all the circ.u.mstances, will yield the greatest net value of the marketable product.
Rich lowland herbage, in a climate which allows it to remain green during a large portion of the year, is favorable to the production of large carca.s.ses. If convenient to a market where mutton finds a prompt sale and good prices, then all the conditions are realized which calls for a mutton-producing, as contradistinguished from a wool-yielding, sheep. Under such circ.u.mstances, the choice should undoubtedly be made from the improved English varieties--the South-Down, the New Leicester, and the improved Cotswolds or New Oxfordshire sheep. In deciding between these, minor and more specific circ.u.mstances must be taken into account.
If large numbers are to be kept, the Downs will herd--remain thriving and healthy when kept together in large numbers--much better than the two larger breeds; if the feed, though generally plentiful, is liable to be somewhat short during the droughts of summer, and there is not a certain supply of the most nutritious winter feed, the Downs will better endure occasional short keep; if the market demands a choice and high-flavored mutton, the Downs possess a decided superiority. If, on the other hand, but few are to be kept in the same enclosure, the large breeds will be as healthy as the Downs; if the pastures are somewhat wet or marshy, the former will better subsist on the rank herbage which usually grows in such situations; if they do not afford so fine a quality of mutton, they--particularly the Leicester--possess an earlier maturity, and give more meat for the amount of food consumed, as well as yield more tallow.
The next point of comparison between the long and the middle woolled families, is the value of their wool. Though not the first or princ.i.p.al object aimed at in the cultivation of any of these breeds, it is, in this country, an important item of incident in determining their relative profitableness. The American Leicester yields about six pounds of long, coa.r.s.e, combing wool; the Cotswold, somewhat more; but this perhaps counterbalanced by these considerations; the Downs grow three to four pounds of a low quality of carding wool. None of these wools are very salable, at remunerating prices, in the American markets. Both, however, will appreciate in proportion to the increase of manufactures of worsted, flannels, baizes, and the like. The difference in the weight of the fleeces between the breeds is, of itself, a less important consideration than it would at first appear, for reasons which will be given when the connection between the amount of wool produced and the food consumed by the sheep is noticed.
The Cheviots are unquestionably inferior to the breeds above named, except in a capacity to endure a vigorous winter and to subsist on healthy herbage. Used in the natural and artificial circ.u.mstances which surround sheep-husbandry in many parts of England--where the fattest and finest quality of mutton is consumed, as almost the only animal food of the laboring cla.s.ses--the heavy, early-maturing New Leicester, and the still heavier New Oxfordshire sheep seem exactly adapted to the wants of producers and consumers, and are of unrivalled value. To depasture poorer soils, sustain a folding system, and furnish the mutton which supplies the tables of the wealthy, the South-Down meets an equal requirement.
Sufficient attention is by no means paid in many portions of the country to the profit which could be made to result from the cultivation of the sheep. One of the most serious defects in the prevalent husbandry of New England, for example, is the neglect of sheep. Ten times the present number might be easily fed, and they would give in meat, wool, and progeny, more direct profit than any other domestic animal, while the food which they consume would do more towards fertilizing the farms than an equal amount consumed by any other animal. It is notorious that the pastures of that section of the country have seriously deteriorated in fertility and become overrun with worthless weeds and bushes to the exclusion of nutritious gra.s.ses.
With sheep--as well as with all other animals--much or prolonged exercise in pursuit of food, or otherwise, is unfavorable to taking on fat. Some seem to forget, in their earnest advocacy of the merits of the different breeds, that the general physical laws which control the development of all the animal tissues as well as functions, are uniform.
Better organs will, doubtless, make a better appropriation of animal food; and they may be taught, so to speak, to appropriate it in particular directions: in one breed, more especially to the production of fat; in another, of muck, or lean meat; in yet another, of wool. But, these things being equal, large animals will always require more food than small ones. Animals which are to be carried to a high state of fatness must have plentiful and nutritious food, and they must exercise but little, in order to prevent the unnecessary combustion in the lungs of that carbon which forms nearly four-fifths of their fat. No art of breeding can counteract these established laws of Nature.
In inst.i.tuting a comparison between breeds of sheep for _wool-growing_ purposes, it is undeniable that the question is not, what variety will shear the heaviest or even the most valuable fleece, irrespective of the cost of production. Cost of feed and care, and every other expense, must be deducted, in order to fairly test the profits of an animal.
If a large sheep consume twice as much food as a small one, and give but once and a-half as much wool, it is obviously more profitable--other things being equal--to keep two of the smaller sheep. The next question, then, is,--_from what breed_--with the same expense in other particulars--_will the verdure of an acre of land produce the greatest value of wool_?
And, first, as to the comparative amount of food consumed by the several breeds. There are no satisfactory experiments which show that _breed_, in itself considered, has any particular influence on the quant.i.ty of food consumed. It is found, with all varieties, that the consumption is in proportion to the live weight of the grown animal. Of course, this rule is not invariable in its individual application; but its general soundness has been satisfactorily established. Grown sheep take up between two and a half and three and a third per cent. of their weight, in what is equivalent to dry hay, to keep themselves in store condition.
The consumption of food, then, being proportioned to the weight, it follows that, if one acre is capable of sustaining three Merinos, weighing one hundred pounds each, it will sustain two Leicesters, weighing one hundred and fifty each, and two and two-fifth South-Downs, weighing one hundred and twenty-five each. Merinos of this weight often shear five pounds per fleece, taking flocks through. The herbage of an acre, then, would give fifteen pounds of Merino wool, twelve of Leicester, and but nine and three-fifths of South-Down--estimating the latter as high as four pounds to the fleece. Even the finest and lightest-fleeced sheep known as Merinos average about four pounds to the fleece; so that the feed of an acre would produce as much of the highest quality of wool sold under the name of Merino as it would of New Leicester, and more than it would of South-Down, while the former would be worth from fifty to one hundred per cent. more per pound than either of the latter.
Nor does this indicate all the actual difference, as in the foregoing estimate the live weight of the English breeds is placed low, and that of the Merinos high. The live weight of the five-pound fine-fleeced Merino does not exceed ninety pounds; it ranges, in fact, from eighty to ninety; so that three hundred pounds of live weight--it being understood that all of these live weights refer to ewes in fair ordinary, or what is called store, condition--would give a still greater product of wool to the acre. It is perfectly safe, therefore, to say that the herbage of an acre will uniformly give nearly double the value of Merino that it will of any of the English long or middle wools.
What are the other relative expenses of these breeds? The full-blooded Leicester is in no respect a hardier sheep than the Merino, though some of its crosses are much hardier than the pure-bred sheep: indeed, it is less hardy, under the most favorable circ.u.mstances. It is more subject to colds; its const.i.tution more readily gives way under disease; the lambs are more liable to perish from exposure to cold, when newly dropped. Under unfavorable circ.u.mstances--herded in large flocks, famished for feed, or subjected to long journeys--its capacity to endure, and its ability to rally from sad drawbacks, do not compare, with those of the Merino. The high-bred South-Down, though considerably less hardy than the unimproved parent stock, is still fairly ent.i.tled to the appellation of a hardy animal; it is, in fact, about on a pace with the Merino, though it will not bear as hard stocking, without a rapid diminution in size and quality. If the peculiar merits of the animal are to be considered in determining the expenses, as they surely should be, the superior fecundity of the South-Down is a point in its favor, as well for a wool-producing as a mutton sheep. The ewe not only frequently produces twin lambs--as do both the Merino and Leicester--but, unlike the latter, she possesses nursing properties to do justice to them. This advantage, however, is fully counterbalanced by the superior longevity of the Merino. All the English mutton breeds begin to rapidly deteriorate in amount of wool, capacity to fatten, and general vigor, at about five years old; and their early maturity is no offset to this, in an animal kept for wool-growing purposes. This early decay requires earlier and more rapid slaughter than is always economically convenient, or even possible.
It is well, on properly stocked farms, to slaughter or turn off the Merino wether at four or five years old, to make room for the breeding stock; but he will not particularly deteriorate, and he will richly pay the way with his fleece for several years longer. Breeding ewes are rarely turned off before eight, and are frequently kept until ten years old, at which period they exhibit no greater marks of age than do the Downs and Leicester at five or six. Instances are known of Merino ewes breeding uniformly until fifteen years old. The improved Cotswold is said to be hardier than the Leicester; but this variety, from their great size, and the consequent amount of food consumed by them, together with the other necessary incidents connected with the breeding of such large animals, is incapacitated from being generally introduced as a wool-growing sheep. All the coa.r.s.e races have one advantage over the Merino: they are less subject to the visitation of the hoof-ail, and when untreated, this disease spreads with less violence and malignity among them. This has been explained by the fact that their hoofs do not grow long and turn under from the sides, as do those of the Merino, and thus retain dirt and filth in constant contact with the foot.
Taking into account all the circ.u.mstances connected with the peculiar management of each race, together with all the incidents, exigencies, and risks of the husbandry of each, it may be confidently a.s.serted that the expenses, other than those of feed, are not smaller per head, or even in the number required to stock an acre, in either of the English breeds above referred to, than in the Merino. Indeed, it may well be doubted whether any of those English breeds, except the South-Down, is on an equality, even, with the Merino, in these respects. For wool-growing purposes, the Merino, then, possesses a marked and decided superiority over the best breeds and families of coa.r.s.e-woolled sheep.
As a mutton sheep, it is inferior to some of those breeds; although not so much as is popularly supposed. Many persons, who have never tasted Merino mutton, and who have, consequently, an unfavorable impression of it, would, if required to consume the fat and lean together, find it more palatable than the luscious and over-fat New Leicester. The mutton of the cross between the Merino and the Native would certainly be preferred to the Leicester, by anybody but an English laborer, accustomed to the latter, since it is short-grained, tender, and of good flavor. The same is true of the crosses with the English varieties, which will hereafter be treated of more particularly. Grade Merino wethers, half-bloods, for example, are favorites with the drover and butcher, being of good size, extraordinarily heavy for their apparent bulk, by reason of the shortness of their wool, compared with the coa.r.s.e breeds, making good mutton, tallowing well, and their pelts, from the greater weight of wool on them, commanding an extra price. In speaking of the Merino in this connection, no reference is made to the Saxons, though they are, as is well known, pure-blooded descendants of the former.
a.s.suming it, then, as settled, that it is to the Merino race that the wool-grower must look for the most profitable sheep, a few considerations are subjoined as to the adaptability of the widely diverse sub-varieties of the race to the wants and circ.u.mstances of different portions of the country.
Upon the first introduction of the Saxons, they were sought with avidity by the holders of the fine-woolled flocks of the country, consisting at that time of pure or grade Merinos. Under the decisive encouragement offered both to the wool-grower and the manufacturer by the tariff of 1828, a great impetus was given to the production of the finest wools, and the Saxon everywhere superseded, or bred out by crossing, the Spanish Merinos. In New York and New England, the latter almost entirely disappeared. In the fine-wool mania which ensued, weight of fleece, const.i.tution, and every thing else, were sacrificed to the quality of the wool. Then came the tariff of 1832, which, as well as that of 1828, gave too much protection to both wool-grower and manufacturer, into whose pursuits agricultural and mercantile speculators madly rushed.
Skill without capital, capital without skill, and in some cases, probably, thirst for gain without either, laid hold of these favored avocations. The natural and inevitable result followed. In the financial crisis of 1837, manufacturing, and all other monetary enterprises which had not been conducted with skill and providence, and which were not based on an adequate and vast capital, were involved in a common destruction; and even the most solid and best conducted inst.i.tutions of the country were shaken by the fury of the explosion. Wool suddenly fell almost fifty per cent. The grower began to be discouraged. The breeder of the delicate Saxons--and they comprised the flocks of nearly all the large wool-growers in the country, at that time--could not obtain for his wool its actual first cost per pound.
When the Saxon growers found that the tariff of 1842 brought them no relief, they began to give up their costly and carefully nursed flocks.
The example once set, it became contagious; and then was a period when it seemed as if all the Saxon sheep of the country would be sacrificed to this reaction. Many abandoned wool-growing altogether, at a heavy sacrifice of their fixtures for rearing sheep; others crossed with coa.r.s.e-woolled breeds; and, rushing from one extreme to the other, some even crossed with the English mutton breeds; or some, with more judgment, went back to the parent Merino stock, but usually selected the heaviest and coa.r.s.est-woolled Merinos, and thus materially deteriorated the character of their wool. This period became distinguished by a mania for heavy fleeces. The English crosses were, however, speedily abandoned. The Merino regained his supremacy, lost for nearly a quarter of a century, and again became the popular favorite. It was generally adopted by those who were commencing flocks in the new Western States, and gives its type to the sheep of those regions.
The supply of fine wool, then, proportionably decreased, and that of medium and coa.r.s.e increased. Wools, for convenience, may be cla.s.sified as follows: _superfine_, the choicest quality grown in the United States, and never grown here excepting in comparatively small quant.i.ties; _fine_, good ordinary Saxon; _good medium_, the highest quality of wool usually known in the market as Merino; _medium_, ordinary Merino; _ordinary_, grade Merino and selected South-Down fleeces; and, _coa.r.s.e_, the English long-wools, etc. This subdivision is, perhaps, minute enough for all practical purposes here.
It soon became apparent that, to sustain our manufacturing interest--that engaged in the manufacture of fine cloths--the diminution of fine wools should not only be at once arrested, but that the growth of them should be immediately and largely increased. An increased attention was accordingly bestowed upon this branch of industry, and sections of the country which had previously held aloof from wool-growing, embarked in that calling with commendable enterprise.
The climate north of forty-one degrees, or, beyond all dispute, north of forty-two degrees, is too severe for any variety of sheep commonly known, which bear either superfine or fine wools. In fact, the only such variety in any thing like general use is the Saxon; and this, as has been remarked, is a delicate sheep, entirely incapable of safely withstanding our northern winters, without good shelter, good and regularly-administered food, and careful and skilful management in all other particulars. When the season is a little more than usually back-hand, so that gra.s.s does not start prior to the lambing season, it is difficult to raise the lambs of the mature ewes; the young ewes will, in many instances, disown their lambs, or, if they own them, not have a drop of milk for them; and if, under such circ.u.mstances, as often happens, a northeast or a northwest storm comes driving down, bearing snow or sleet in its wings, or there is a sudden depression of the temperature from any cause, no care will save mult.i.tudes of lambs from perishing. If the time of having the lambs dropped is deferred, for the purpose of escaping these evils, they will not attain size and strength sufficient to enable them to pa.s.s safely through their first winter.
North of the lat.i.tude last named, it is necessary, as a general rule, that they be dropped in the first half of May, to give them this requisite size and strength; and occasional cold storms come, nearly every season, up to that period, and, not unfrequently, up to the first of June.
These considerations have had their weight even with the few large sheep-holders in that section, whose farms and buildings have been arranged with exclusive reference to the rearing of these sheep; many of whom have adopted a Merino cross. With the ordinary farmers--the small sheep-owners, who, in the aggregate, grow by far the largest portion of the northern wools--the Saxon sheep is, for these reasons, in marked disrepute. They have not the necessary fixtures for their winter protection, and are unwilling to bestow the necessary amount of care on them. Besides, mutton and wool being about an equal consideration with this cla.s.s, they want larger and earlier maturing breeds. Above all, they want a strong, hardy sheep, which demands no more care than their cattle. The strong, compact, medium-woolled Merino, or, more generally, its crosses with coa.r.s.e varieties, producing the wool cla.s.sed as ordinary, is the common favorite. In the Northwest, this is especially the case, where the climate is still worse for delicate sheep.
At the South, on the contrary--where these disadvantages do not exist to so great an extent, certainly--wool varying from good medium upward are more profitable staples for cultivation than the lower cla.s.ses; and in that section a high degree of fineness in fleece has been sought in breeding the Merino--the four-pound fine-fleeced Merino having received marked attention. This is a far more profitable animal than the Saxon, other things being equal--which is not the case, since the former is every way a hardier animal and a better nurse; and, although about twenty pounds heavier, and therefore consuming more feed, this additional expense is more than counterbalanced by the additional care and risk attending the husbandry of the Saxon.
POINTS OF THE MERINO.