WOOL FIBRE

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 29 April 1922, Page 3

WOOL FIBRE

In a most interesting letter on wool fibre by a correspondent m Meat and Wool, the writer says, niter aha: — "How few of the army oi wool producers in the Dominion leaily know what wool really is, further than that it is wool such as grows on their sheep, much the same as were it hair, a similar production as a horse's or cow's coat, instead of being as dissimilar as chalk and cheese. In fact, one might go so far as to say just the reverse, the one seeming to flourish under- adversity while wo>l requires all possible beneficial stimulation. Whereas hair is but just a plain, hard thread, wool is one ot the most delicately constructed creations imaginable. How few, when viewing a single fibre of wool, realise that it is composed of a whole host ot minute, leaf like layers, the more numerous the finer the fibre, and withal actually hollow, and with a cavity between each layer, it is just this peculiar formation that makes wool so valuable, and it" is just its due care that governs that condition. As nature has decreed certain important conditions governing the successful growing of the fibre in its best and most valuable form, it behoves us to observe the law of nature, and conform to her teaching, as howto produce the all-important wherewithal to acquire our most precious fabrics. Consequently we must look to the beginning. The condition of the sheep, which firstly must have a healthy skin—the seed bed of the minute, bulbous like plant secretions, which dies, lies dormant, or flourishes, according to the parents' condition. Having the plant in the seed bed, we now require to give thought to what to expect. From each seed—or plant root —comes a fibre of wool, first a mere hair like wee thread, to develop into a s true fibre containing very likely the most delicate, intricate structure imaginable, quitje inconceivable to the non-observant or uninitiated. A powerful microscope reveals really a structure of fish-like scales, placed with the most beautiful systematic regularity that nature is such a master at. Further, each of these pointed scales terminates in a hook, or-minute barb, and as this tiny hook serves so important a part in the felting properties of wool; .here naturally can be seen at a glance the importance of their preservation. Nature, in her wisdom, has elaborated a most ingenious system of distributing nourishment as well as preserseryative secretions essential to maintaining the wool in that plastic state so invaluable, and looked for by the expert, whose first act on coming in contact with wool is to feel it, "feel the touch," a sensitiveness begotten only by studious practice. Without this very "liveness," so to speak, wool loses its vital substance, though that may seem paradoxical. The provision nature has provided for the creative preservative is the exudation of a very thin, oily wax, commonly called yolk, or grease, and very often erroneously thought to be the sweat of the sheep. Now it can easily be understood that this vital supply cannot be supplied externally, so nature's delicate task of providing for its application inwardly is so appaient that it becomes at once patent that any interruption must have a disastrous effect. So the delicate channels of distribution must be nurtured and guarded with the utmost care. It is in the .preserving of these delicate barbs that the wool scourers.Art comes in, the freeing of the wool of foreign matter and surplus weight without robbing the fibre of its natural oily preservative.; .and the flockmaster who fails to keep liis sheep in a good, thrifty state of health, with its attendant supply of nourishment, fails in an essential care, and runs a serious risk of deteriorating wool's felting merit, a characteristic condition .that makes it differ so from hafr..