Tho beautiful pashms of Changthan and Tinian, and the soft white fleeces of Kirman, embrace three distinct kinds of wool, distinguished not only by the climate and soil where they are pro duced, but also by the fact that they are the pro duce of different animals.
These classes are-1st. The genuine pashms of Changthan, Turfan, etc., which are mono polized by Kashmir, and those second - class pashms, the produce of Rodakh, Ladakh, and even Spiti, Rampur, and Bashahir, which form the staple export to the shawl miumfacturing cities of the Panjab, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Jalalpur, Nur pur. Included by analogy of locality only, are the wools of the ibex, so rarely seen, and the yak, the thick tails of which animals are prized for chauries (fly-flaps).
2d. The wools produced beyond the N.W. frontier, including those of Peshawur, comprise the Dumba sheep wool, the wooLs of Kabul, Bokliara, and that imported from Kirman ; in fact, all classes of wool produced on or beyond the N.W. frontier. The trade in these wools is now extensive, both by the Pcshawur and other routes. Second class of wools, produced at or about Peshawur, Kabul, Kandahar, and Penis or Kirman.
British Wools.—Siueo the middle of the 18th century there have been many fluctuations in tho price of wool in Great Britain, from 14s. Gd. the tod about tho year 1780, to Os. in 1861 and 22s. 21d. in 1883. Taking the wool produce of Eng land at 5,500,000 tads per annum, tho value of this produce in the year 1864 was £17,554,166, whereas the same quantity in the year 1883 would repre sent a value of £6,104,427,—that is, taking the mean average price of wool in 1864 at 63a. 10d. per tod, and in 1883 at 22s. 2id. per tod. Tho difference in value between tho produce of theso two years is thus no less than £11,449,739.
Thull.—The wool produced in the Thull i a slipped at Bukkur or Lein, and sent dovrn to Bombay, and averages Rs. 10 a maund. In Ludhuina district pashmina is prepared from pashm, the fino hair of tho Tartar goat. The hair is brought doNyn on mules through Ladakh, Rampur, and Bashaliir, and, in exchange, cotton piece - goods, brass, and iron are taken back. The price of imam varies from Rs. 2 a seer. On rec.civing the pashm, the manufacturer's first business is to mepamte the coamer from the finer or underneath hair ; out of each seer about G chitaks of the latter aro taken. It is then washed in rico water, and made into thread. This sells at from 4 to 12 rupees per seer, according to quality. The thread made of the finest hair is woven into the well known Rampur chadr, which aro extenaively manufactured. From the coarser thread are made shawls of sorts, and the cloth known as pashmina.
Woollen manufactures are largely produced in High Asia, in India, and in China ; vast quantifier; of wool are woven into blankets of various degrees of fineness, for the use of the people called kumlee or cumblee, also chadr. The numd
or felts, both white and coloured, are used for tents, floorcloths, and quilts. The woven fabrics are made into shawls, choghas, and barani or overcoats, and the fino blankets known as Rampur chadr are prized, and Central Asia is famed for its carpets. The burruk fabric, the abra and looi blankets, are made of sheep's wool; tho pattu and pattu malida (dressed pattu) fabrics are largely worn in Afghanistan, and at Herat kuruk is manufactured from goat's hair.
The jute carpet is indigenous t,o Persia and Turkestan, where the best are still made. In Iudia, the foundation for the carpet is a warp of strong cotton or hempen threads ; and the pecu liarity of the process consists in dexterously twist ing short lengths of coloured wool into each of the threads of the warp, so that tho two ends of. the twist of wool stick out in front. The projecting ends are then clipped to a uniform level, and the lines of work are compacted torgether by striking them with a blunt instrument (Birdwood). The historical seats of the industry are in Kashmir, the Paujab, and Sind, and at Agra, Mirzapur, Jubbul pur, Warangal in the Dekhan, Malabar, and Masuli patam. Velvet carpets aro also made at Benares and 3furshidabad, and silk carpets at Tanjore and Salem. At the Exhibition of 1851, the finest Indian rugs came from Warangal, tho ancient capital of tho Andhra dynasty, about 80 miles cast of Hyderabad. Their c.haracteristic feature was the exceedingly numerous count of the stitches, about 12,000 to the square foot. They were also perfectly harmonious in colour, and the only examples in which silk was used with an entirely satisfactory effect ' (Birdwood). The price was not less than £10 per square yard. The cornmon rugs, produced in enormous quantities from the jails at Lahore, Jubbulpur 3firzapur, Benares, and Bangalore, sell in England at 7s. 6d. each.
Tho woollen fabrics produced by the Chinerre are felts for the MACS of shoes and winter hate, and a sort of rug or carpet. It is not woven in looms from the .yarn, but Ili made in small pieces by a fulling process which mats the fibres together. The consumption of it by shoemakers is very great, and nearly as largo for winter hate among tho common people. The rugs are woven with colOared threads in rudo imitation of figures, and are extensively used in the northern provinces; the pieces aro a few feet square, and sewn together for carpets or bedding. Hair and wool aro both employed in their construction.
Great Britain in 1883.exported woollen fabrics to the value of £18,320,016, of which there was cleared for India, /370,545 value ; to China, /242,456; to Japan, 162,455. India in 1882 1883 hnported to the value of Rs. 77,52,049.— MacGregor, p. 50 ; Powell, Handbook ; Econ. Prod. Panjab, 183 ; Ann. Ind. Adnt. xii. 108 ; Imp. Gaz.