FACTS ABOUT SHEEP AND WOOL.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3017, 28 March 1867, Page 6

FACTS ABOUT SHEEP AND WOOL.

We make the following interesting extracts from the address of John L. Hayes, Esq., before the National Asiooiation of Wool-growers, delivered at the annual meeting in Philadelphia :— We find sheep mentioned in the most ancient writiug—in the first chapter of Genesis, in the Persian Zendavesta, in the Indian Vedas, and in the Chinese ChoU'king, and represented on the monuments of Egypt. According to Geoffroy de St. Hilaire, the highest authority on the origin of speoies, the specific source of our domestic sheep is unknown. All that is certain is that the present races originated in the East ; the primitive names, "Bock" and "Bouc," found in the most ancient and Asiatic language?, being preserved in our term • ' Buck. " Excepting perhaps the dog, the sheep presents a greater variety of form and covering than any other animal. Thus we hare the coarse Cordova and Donskoi wools for our carpets j the noble Electoral wools of S*xony *nd Silesia for our broadcloths ; the strong middle wools of the Southdown »nd our native sheep for blankets ; the soft, long.and fine merino wools of ' France, Vermont, and Michigan forthibeto, delaines, and shawls ; the longer and coaner combing wools of i the Cotawold and Leicester races for worsteds in their I thousand applications ; the very long and bright- ! haired lustre wools of Lincolnshire for alpaca fabric* ; ■ and lastly, the precious silky Mauchamp wool, the i recent triumph of French agonomic skill, rivalling evea the cashmere for shawls, and the angora for ■ Utrecht velvet , . The perfection of the fibre is shown in its indestraetibleness and durability. Cotton and flax m*y be ultimately reduced to mere woody fibre. Wool ,is almost incapable of mechanical destruction. The 1 existence of "shoddy," the term of reproach to the woollen manufacturers, is the strongest proof of the excellence and indestructibility of its original fibre. The fibre of wool is crisped or spirally curled, and is made up of cells of different kinds— the interior forming the pith, and the exterior consisting of serrated rings, imbricated over each other, having under the microscope the appearance of a series of thimbles of uneven edges inserted into each other, these aerratures, as well as the spiral curls, being more or less distinct according to the fineness of the fibre. We have here the cause of the invaluable quality of felting, to which we owe our hats and broadcloths. The aggregate production o£ wool in the whole globe is estimated at 1,610, 000,0001b. a year, or a pound and a quarter to each inhabitant. Wool was largely used by the Romans. An instaoce is oited where a single Patrician bequeathed by will two hundred thousand sheep. The finest kind, however, appear to have been valued very highly. The Roman purple, worn by the senators, was made from the wools of Italy, which, according to Pliny, were worth four dollars per pound of twelve ounces, and which, of the same weight, 'were worth $160 when coloured with the Tyrian dye. It is not strange, then, that Horace should boast of a gift to to his mistress of fleeces twice dyed with the Tjrian murex. The world has regretted for many centuries the loss of this imperial dye ; but within the last ten years, or no later than 1856, chemistry thus produced from aniline, a product of worthless ooal tar.a purple tint, resisting light, alkalis, and acids, and mailing, upon the light worsted zephyrs of our simple maidens, the hue of the patrician mantle. Twenty-five years ago woollen rags were worth about £4 per ton, and were used only for manure. They are now worth in, England *40 per ton, to be converted »g*iu y^P <ty% ■ l ? » «W ed $»$ #»■

the neighbourhood of Leeds 7,000,000. to 8,000,000 yards of doth, of the value of $15,000,000, »re annually manufactured from this material, and that if the supply of shoddy were stopped it would oloie one-third of the wool mills in the United Kingdom, and bring distress apon the West Biding in Ytrkshire, as great as that lately suffered in Lancashire for the want of cottton. It is disclosed,in the report on the London Exhibition of 1862, that 65,000,0001b. of shoddy are annually consumed in England, a greater quantity than the whole wool product of the United States, estimated at 60,264,9131b. by the census of 1860. It is one of the advantages of depend ing upon foreign importation for our goods, that we are in blissful ignorance of their origin, and are not ■hooked with the consciousness of being clad in the cast-off habiliments of a Polish Jew or Italian beggar. JNapoleon said, "Spain has twenty-five millions of merinos; I with France to have a hundred millions," To effect this, among other adminiitra* tive aids, he established sixty additional sheepfolds to those of Rambouillet, where agriculturists could obtain the use of Spanish rams without expense. Visiting the establishment for printing calicoes of the celebrated Oberhampf, Napolean said to him as he saw the perfection of the fabrics, "We are both of us carrying on a war with England, but I think thrft yours, after all, is the best."—" These words," says M. Kaudoing, "so flattering and so just, were repeated from one end of France to the other ; they so inflamed the imaginations of the people, that the meanest artisan, believing himself called upon to be the auxiliary of the great man, had bnt one thought, the ruin of England." We take the following from the Toledo (Ohio) Blade; The quantity of wool produced in tho United States is increasing annually, but has not yet equalled the demand for home consumption. In 1860 according to the census returns, 69,264,913 pounds were produced, all of which were coisumed in our manufactures. The amount imported from foreign countries in the same year was '32,371,719 pounds, making the total amount consumed 91,636,632 pounds. The product of 1864 has been estimated at 80,000,000 pounds. The amount imported was 72,371,503 pounds. The vast increase in home production and foreign importation, was required principally for supplying the army and navy with clothing and blankets. _It is said in one 'year our woollen factories and sewing machines turned] out no leas than 35,174,608 garments. The quantity of wool consumed for army us* during three years has been estimated as follows : — lb. 1862 64,000,000 1863 63,300,000 1864 61,000,000 To this must be added: the consumption for tha navy, and for cartridges, and the total cannot vary nmeh from 200,000,000 pounds. In 1815, when the United States was at war with Great Britain, the home product of wool was so small that the Secretary of War wm compelled to aak Congress for permission to import 5,000 blankets for the supply of the Indians. The army and navy being now nearly en a peace footing, a great falling off must necessarily arise in the quantity of woollens required for their use, and the home produot of wool being increasing annually, it is probable that very little will be required from foreign countries for the future.