SHEEP. We shall give in this work a few details on such points, only, of the history of the sheep as relate to industrial uses.
When the Romans had conquered Britain, they turned their attention to the improve ment of the country, and among other things they established a woollen manufactory at Winchester. So well did. this succeed, that the woollen cloths of Britain soon began to vie with the productions of every other part of the Roman empire. The sheep employed in furnishing the material of these produc tions were the Short-woolled Breed. Winches ter was situated in the centre of a country which then, as now, could support short woolled sheep alone. It would appear to have been some centuries after this that the Long-woolled Sheep was introduced. The manufactures of the Winchester mills con tinued, however, to be duly estimated ; and,' in point of fact, the cultivation of the various I breeds of sheep, and the manufacture.of the I fleece into many different kinds of cloth, had begun to constitute the chief employment and wealth of the country.
The covering of the original sheep con sisted of a mixture of hair and wool ; the wool being short and fine, and forming an inner coat, and the hair of greater length, pro jecting through the wool, and constituting an external covering. When the sheep are neg lected or exposed to a considerable degree of cold, this degeneracy is easily traced ; it is only by diligent cultivation that the quantity of hair or kenzps, has been generally dimi nished, and that of wool increased in our best breeds. The filaments of wool taken from a healthy sheep present a beautifully polished and even glittering appearance. That of the neglected or half-starved animal exhibits a paler hue. This is one valuable indication by which the wool-stapler is enabled to form an accurate opinion of the value of the fleece. Among the qualities which influence the value of the wool, are fineness, and the uniformity of that fineness in the single fibre and in the collected fleece. This fineness, however, dif fers materially in different parts of the fleece.
It is finest on the shoulders, the ribs, and the back ; it is less fine on the legs, thighs, and haunch; and is still coarser on the neck, the breast, the belly, and the lower part of the legs. Sheep in a hot climate yield a compa ratively coarse wool ; in a cold climate they carry a closer and a warmer fleece. The fine ness of the fleece is also much influenced by the kind of food. The woolly fibre consists of a central stem or stalk, from which there spring at different distances circlets of leaf shaped projections, possessing a certain de gree of resistance or of entanglement with other fibres, in proportion as these circlets are multiplied and they project from the stalk. They are shiner and more numerous in the felting wools, and in proportion as the felting property exists. They give to the wool the power of felting, and regulate the degree in which that power is possessed.
The South Down sheep supported the first manufactory at Winchester. The South Downs, and the Hampshire and Wiltshire breeds, were formerly of a very small size, and far from possessing a good shape, but the size and shape have been of late years greatly im proved, and the wool is short, close, curled; and free from spiry projecting hairs. Mr. Luccock calculated that within a certain disi tance from the Downs there were 864,000 sheep of this breed, a number which is only to be accounted for by the great quantity of artificial food that is raised on the arable part of every farm. The average dead weight of the South Down wether varies from 8 to 11 stones. The average weight of the fleece used to be 2 lbs.; but from the altered system of management, it is now at least 3 lbs. in the hill sheep, and nearly 4 lbs. in the lowland sheep. This wool has likewise changed its character. It has become a combing instead of a carding wool. Formerly devoted to the manufacture of servants' and army clothing, and being sparingly mixed with other wool, it is now used for flannels and baizes, and worsted goods of almost every description, thus becoming of considerably increased value.