ALPACA, or PACO, is the wool of the llama, or goat of Peru and Chili. The intro duction of alpaca wool in manufactures has attracted considerable attention, and the ques tion of naturalizing the alpaca in this country, in Germany, and in Australia, is also an object of much interest. The wool of the alpaca is superior to English wool in length, soft ness, and pliability. The fleece averages from 10 to 12 pounds, while that of our sheep is seldom more than 8 pounds ; and while the staple of English wool does not often exceed six inches in length, that of the alpaca varies from eight to twelve inches. The lustrous appearance of the alpaca wool renders it applicable to many of the purposes for which silk is usually employed in textile fabrics ; and it is found a useful substitute for Angora wool. The manufacture of plain and figured stuffs from the fleece of the alpaca was com menced at Bradford, in Yorkshire, a number of years ago, and there is a large and increas ing use of alpaca wool. In 1844 five different articles were manufactured at Bradford for her Majesty, from the wool of an alpaca which had been kept at Windsor, copies of which articles were exhibited at the Free Trade Bazaar in 1845.
Besides the use of the wool in textile fabrics, the flesh of the alpaca is also whole some and palatable. The carcase weighs on
an average about 180 lbs.
The question of naturalising the alpaca has been taken up with great enthusiasm by a few persons ; but very little progress has yet been made in demonstrating its practicability. The alpaca inhabits the mountainous and in hospitable regions of Peru, and is remarkable for its abstemiousness. It thrives on coarse food. Those which have been brought to this country have been confined in parks and richly cultivated lands, and have been treated with too much care and tenderness. Mr. Wal ton asserts that they will live where our hardiest sheep would starve, and that the wildest parts of Great Britain are best suited to their habits. If the alpaca may be pas tured on lands which are now waste and un profitable, and where the hardiest sheep would starve, the naturalization of the animal would undoubtedly prove a great national benefit; but if this is not the case, it is a question whether a constant demand for the wool as an article of import would not be quite as beneficial.
Alpaca is now used to a very large extent in manufactures—umbrellas, paletots, and vari ous articles and garments are made of it, as it presents a sort of compound of the qualities of silk and woollen.