WOOL. A term used very indefinite ly, being applied both to the fine hair of animals, as sheep, rabbits, some species of goats, &e., and to fine vegetable fibres, as cotton (called in German baumwolle, or tree-wool); but when used without re striction it is generally confined to the wool of sheep—a substance which, from the remotest period of history, has been of primary importance to mankind. In reference to textile fabrics, sheep's wool is of two different sorts, the short and the long stapled ; each of which requires different modes of manufacture in the preparation and spinning processes, as also in the treatment of the cloth after it is woven, to fit it for the market. Each of these is, moreover, distinguished in commerce by the names of fleece wools and dead wools, according as they have been shorn at the usual annual period from the living animal, or are cut from its skin after death. The latter are com paratively harsh, weak, and incapable of imbibing the dyeing principles, more especially if the sheep has died of seine malignant distemper. The annular pores, leading into the tubular cavities of the filaments, seem, in this case, to have shrunk and become obstructed. The time of year for sheep-shearing most fa vorable to the quality of the wool and the comfort of the animal, is towards the end of June and the beginning of July in England ; in this country it is somewhat later : generally in the month of Au gust.
The wool of the sheep has been sur prisingly improved by its domestic cul ture. The rnoVion (Otis aries), the pa rent stack from which our sheep is un doubtedly derived, and which is still found in a wild state upon the mountains of Sardinia, Corsica, Barbary, Greece, and Asia Minor, has a very short and coarse fleece, more like hair than wool. When this animal is brought under the fostering care of man, the rank fibres gradually disappear • while the soft wool round their roots, little conspicnous in the wild animal, becomes singularly de veloped. The male rnost speedily under goes this change, and continues ever after ward to possess far more power in modi fying the fleece of the offspring than the female parent. The produce of a breed from a coarse-woolled ewe and a fine woolled ram is not of a mean quality be tween the two, but halfway nearer that of the sire. By coupling the female thus generated with such a t tale as the former, another improvement of one half will be obtained, affording a staple three fourths finer than that of the grandam. By pro ceeding inversely, the wool would be as rapidly deteriorated. It is, therefore, a matter of the first consequence in wool husbandry, to exclude from the flock all coarse-fleeced rams.
Long wool is the produce of a peculiar variety of sheep, and varies in the length of its fibres from 3 to 8 inches. Such wool is not carded like cotton, but comb ed like flax, either by hand or appropri ate machinery. Short wool is seldom longer than 3 or 4 inches; it is suscepti ble of carding and felting, by which pro cesses the filaments become first convo luted, and then densely matted together.
The shorter sorts of the combing wool are used principally for hosiery, though of Tate years the finer kinds have been ex tensively worked up into merino and mousseline-de-laine fabrics. The longer wools of the Leicestershire breed are manufactured into hard yarns, for worsted pieces, such as waistcoats, carpets, bom bazines, poplins, crapes, &c.
The wool of which good broadcloth is made should be not only shorter, but, generally speaking, finer and softer than the worsted wools, in order to fit them for the fulling process. Some wool-sort ers and wool staplers acquire by practice great nicety of discernment in judging of wools by the touch and traction of the fingers. Dr. Ure made a large series of observations upon different wools, and published the results. The filaments of the finer qualities varied in thickness from 1-1100th to 1-1500th of an inch; their structure is very curious, exhibit ing, in a good achromatic microscope, at intervals of about 1-300th of an inch, a series of serrated rings, imbricated to wards each other, like the joints of Equi setum, or, rather, like the scaly zones of a serpent's skin.
There are four distinct qualities of wool upon every sheep ; the finest being upon the spine, from the neck to within six inches of the tail, including one third of the breadth of the back ; the second co vers the flanks between the thighs and the shoulders ; the third clothes the neck and the rump ; and the fourth extends upon the lower part of the neck and breast down to the feet, as also upon a part of the shoulders and the thighs, to the bottom of the hind quarter. These should be torn asunder, and sorted, im mediately after the shearing.
The harshness of wools is dependent not elely upon the breed of the animal, or the climate, but is owing to certain pe culiarities in the pasture, derived from the soil. It is known that in sheep fed upon chalky districts,. wool is apt to get coarse; but in those upon a rich loamy soil, it becomes soft and silky. The ar dent sun of Spain renders the fleece of the Merino breed harsher than it is in the milder climate of Saxony. Smearing sheep with a mixture of tar and butter is deemed favorable to the softness of their wool. This breed flourishes well in New England.
All wool, in its natural state, contains a quantity of a peculiar potash-soap, secret ed by the animal, called in this country the yolk; which may be washed out by water alone, with which it forms a sort of lather. It constitutes from 25 to 50 per cent. of the wool, being most abundant in the Merino breed of sheep; and how ever favorable to the growth of the wool on the living animal, should be taken out soon after it is shorn, lest it injure the fibres by fermentation, and ounce them to become hard and bnttle. After being washed in water, something more than lukewarm, the wool should be well press ed and carefully dried.
Wool is much cultivated in the New England States, especially in Vermont.