MARKET QUALITIES OF WOOL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2433, 31 October 1900, Page 15

MARKET QUALITIES OF WOOL.

Br Myles Campbell. (Concluded.) Wool is still the staple product of~ tlie colony, notwithstanding the strides made recently in the dairy industry and the boom m gold dredging. Last year the wool, frozen meat, and tallow, all kindred products, exported from ths colony were valued at over seven million pounds sterling, after providing liberally for our own. people. BLACK WOOL. - ' '

A - few lines_ on black and "coloured wool may be of interest to the readers of the Witness. Some years ago a "great demand Ava created for black wool owing to a certain religious institution abroad wearing none but clothes made of undyed wool, and also, in consequence of • clothes made of undyed wobl being much worn under Dr Jeer's system of treatment for* certain diseases.

The Australian sheepbreeder,' always alive to business and improvement, come from whatever quarter it may, soon supplied this demand, by establishing black flocks. Among the first in the field was Mr William Allen, Braeside, Queensland, who established his flock in 1877-78. The black sheep rapidly multiplied and increased, and in" 1885 the whole of the wool from this flock realised Is 6^d in London, which was nearly double the average of some of the white flocks in the same district. This high price gaw an impetus to the breeding of coloured sheep, and several breeders appeared on tho field. Air R. Whitaker, Gellengroo, N.S.W. in. 1596 shore 11,000 black sheep, and in -189S his wool realised Hid. Mr J. C. M'Kay.' Conomogil, N.5.W.., shore in 1E99 5000 black sheep, his wool being sold in Sydney, and realising 14|d (a), Ud (b), 13id (c) ; first pieces, 13 a d; second pieces, Hid. These are believed to be the highest prices yet obtained for black wool sold in any quantity in Australia. Among others who established black flocks I find Mr H. Beattie, Mount Atkin, Victoria. Messrs Danger and M'Donald, N.S.W., were also breeders of black sheep, but sold out of them. Messrs M'Farland Bros., Baroogo, N.S.W.; Mr W. A. Murray, South Australia; Mr H. Gibson, Tasmania ; Mr John Barton, Threntham, Wellington; 7 ' and the late Mr John Fulton, Rangiora, also established black flocks, the latter's flock being dispersed after' his death. Mr Fulton established his coloured flock by buying the coloured sheep in the saleyards. This was supplemented by presents from his friends, the wool kings of Am'uri, and others. The sheep were of all shades of colour, and forcibly reminded me of the description left us by the scribes of classic Greece and ancient Rome, of the sheep of their time. These sheep' had" bands of white and grey wool running through their black and brown fleeces.

It is worthy of notice that no black sheep have bean introduced into Australia or New Zealand, and that the black flocks enumerated hsve been established by the saving of the odd black lambs that occasionally appear in the most carefully-bred flocks. Th. black lamb is a reversion to near, remote, or forgotten ancestors, as will be shown further on. How can T better prove that the sheep were not always white in colour than by taking my readers along with me and glancing over sacred and secular ancient and modern history? The earliest mention of coloured sheep is to be found in the Book ~ of Genesis, and rules are given for'influencing, as was then thought possible, the colour of the sheep, and speckled and dark breeds are spoken of 'as being kept separate. In. the description of the ornamentation of the shield made by Vulcan for Achillesj a very.

pleasant picture of rural life is presented to the reader. The details are given with such minuteness as to show conclusively that the writer had an intimate knowledge of live stock, husbandry, and tillage. In the "Odyssey" incidents pastoral and agricultural are almost as frequently attended as in the "Iliad." The sheep of the Cyclops, Polyphemus, are described in the following terms: — "The rams of the flock were well nurtured and thick of fleece, great and goodly, with wool dark as the violet." The wife of Alcinus is found sitting by the hearth with her handmaids i^pmning yarn of "sea purple" stain. Helen is described #5 sitting on a rug of soft wool, Jiaving- by her a golden distaff charged with wool of violet blue. Laodicea was celebrated tor its black wool, which was considered as fine and soft as that of the Milesian flock. Pliny states that many parts of Asia possessed sheep that yielded a red-tinted wool, which was evidently considered to be of great beauty, as we find it compared to the au"bum locks of a girl. Virgil, in his Georgics Jlib. ill), gives as strong advice as any modern weeder could do to Select sheep of the purest *vhite for the breeding stock, and to examine if their tongues are swarthy. Columella, the father of husbandry, and one of the best writers on the sheep of his time, says: "The white colour, as it is the best, so also it is the most valuable, because out of -it many colours are made, ' but this is not made of anyother colour. "The black and brown colours which Polentia, in Italy, and Corduba, in Beatica, furnish us with are of their own nature commendable foi their price. Nor does Asia produce a'less plenti•ul supply of a bright red colour, which they ;all erythreum".

During the classical period the fme-woolled uheep of Spain are described by several ancient authors as being black, red, and tawny. After the long, toilsome conquest of Spniu hy the Romans all the writers who describe the products of the countrj speak of its flocks of sheep as having been for a long time celebrated for the .beauty and high quality of their wool. Strabo and Pliny describe these sheep as being of different coloure — namely, black, white, and two shades of red. The finest of the black wools came from Turditania, a district of Beatica corresponding with modern Granada, Andalusia, and parts of Estremudura. Another writer pays that the Karakool sheep, which produced a fine curled black and valuable fleece, when removed from its own canton, near Bokhara, to Persia, or to other quarters, lost its peculiar fleece. The highest estimation in which the slfeep bearing coloured wools were held in ancient times has led to the supposition that their value was o-Hng to the 1 ignorance of the people in the art of dyeing. The facts are all against this theory, for in the most ancient times of which we have any record the inhabitants of Asia Minor appear to have had considerable knowledge of dyeing, while the beauty of the clothes dyed by the Phoenicians is supposed to have never since been equalled. The skill of the ancient Egyptians in the- art of weaving \vas remarkable. Even with the advantage of modern machinery, the delicacy 'of then linen textures has never been equalled. Mi Wilken, in his "Ancient Egypt," gives the following instances of their skill in weaving fino linen cloth found in one of the tombs: — "Some idea may be gained from the number of threads to the inch, which is 540, or 270 double thread, in the warp, and the limited ■oportion of 110 in the woof." When we

consider that the fine cambric of the present day has only 160 threads in the inch of the warp and 140 in the woof, we can estimate the marvellous fineness of the oldworld linen. Probably it was a goodly Babylonist garment of this description that broiight about the ruin of Achan, the son of Carmi, at the destruction of Jericho. The species of wild sheep at present existing in various parts of the world are much more numerous than is generally imagined. In a paper read before the Zoological Society in June, 1840, by Mr E. Blythe, the writer enumerated no less than 14 wild species, and thought it probable that we are still very far from having ascertained the complete number, but that several more yet remain to be discovered up.on the elevated table lands and snowy mountains of Middle Asia, from the Caucasus and Taurus to the Altai. It may be there are among them some varieties much more nearly allied to the domestic races than any at present known. Those wild species are described as being of a "rufus brown colour," tending to lighter colour on the limbs and under parts of the body. I may* add that in the Farentino the inhabitants keep black sheep alone, because the hypericum crispum abounds there, and this plant does not injure the black sheep, but kills the white ones in ahout a fortnight's time. The earliest mention I have found of an importation of coloured sheep into England was in the fifteenth century, when Edward IV, with the permission- of the King of Spain, imported 3000 sheep from Spain. It is said that sheep farms were established with' those sheep, and that they were kept up till the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Of this importation I have only found the one reference in "Diclionnaire d'Historie Univergelle. '