CHEVIOT WOOL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1861, 22 July 1887, Page 7

CHEVIOT WOOL.

At the last monthly meeting of the Teviotdale Farmers' Club, held at Hawick (writes our Edinburgh correspondent), Mr R. G. Laidlaw, a leading manufacturer in that town, read an interesting paper on the best kind of wool to grow for manufacturing purposes. He specially referred to the oncefamous Cheviot wool, and to the change which had taken placo in it of late years. Owing to the fall in the price of wool, brought about by colonial competition, breeders had turned their attention to the rearing of larger sheep, growing a heavier fleece. The consequence of this, Mr Laidlaw affirmed, was that the wool was too coarse to be used in the high-priced yarns and goods into which it was formerly put. The results were depreciation in value of the wool, and a decreased consumption of it in those fabrics of which it was at one time the chief component, and which owed to it their fame for warmth, durability, and quality. Cheviot wool formed a very small proportion of those articles now, though 20 or 30 years ago it was a specialty difficult to" be copied by reason of its moderate length and its fineness at the same time. In regard to this difficulty of imitating the good qualities of the former Cheviot wool, Mr Laidlaw said that in New Zealand and Australia, when this class of sheep was bred, the wool was at first too coarse. Tli en the happy medium was struck for a year or two, after which the wool became too fine, "when the quality merges into the merino, and loses the character which is only to be found in perfection in Cheviot, or if in any other South Devon wool is the only other opponent." For the Cheviot wool as now grown Mr Laidlaw said that substitutes can be obtained from every part of the world, and "goods are made from these and other products, some of them even vegetable, and such goods forsooth are dubbed by the name of Cheviot, and palmed upon the public as such. They are a sham and a spurious imitation of the article." Finally, referring to the kind of wool wanted for the special manufactures of the district, Mr Laidlaw expressed himself as follows : — "We want finer wool than you have been growing of late years — finer in fibre, though not necessarily a smaller fleece. Let the fibres in the fleece be as close together as you will, so long as they do not ' coat,' and it seems to me that a sheep with a fine close fleece may grow as much wool as a sheep with a long open one, and certainly be better protected from the snow and frost in winter, and the keen east wind and driving rain of early spring. Then eschew a rapidly extending practice of selling your wool unwashed."' Probably these remarks will not be without interest for woolgrowers and manufacturers of woollen goods in your community.