英文科学读本 第六册·Lesson 22 Wool

Lesson 22 Wool

Nature provides each of her creatures with exactly the kind of covering suited to the climate and the conditions under which it lives. In the extreme frozen north all animals are clothed with a thick, warm, fur coat; in the temperate regions the fur gives place to wool; and in tropical climates the animals are, for the most part, provided with a covering of thin, scanty hair.

Of all these animal coverings wool is by far the most useful to man. It is the peculiar, wavy, scaly characteristic of wool that renders it valuable for the manufacture of textile fabrics, and it is this same peculiarity which distinguishes wool from hair. Wool is usually classed according to the length of its fiber.

The short-fiber or short-staple wool is very wavy, and contains a large number of scales; the long-fiber or long-staple wool is less curly, has fewer scales, and at the same time it is coarser in texture.

In England sheep are reared with a view rather to their flesh than their wool, and, as a rule, English wool is inferior in quality to most of the foreign varieties. Manufacturers have to depend largely on imported material, most of which is supplied by their own colonies, especially Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India.

English sheep include, among the short-woolled varieties, the Dorsets and the South Downs. The latter are a small breed, noted for the fineness of their wool, as well as for the quality of their flesh; they are the most highly prized of the pure English breeds. Among the long-woolled kinds, the Cotswold and Leicestershire breeds are considered the best. In sedition to these pure breeds there are several well-known cross-breeds.

The average weight of the fleece of an English sheep is from 5 to 7 lbs., but the quantity as well as the quality of the wool depends entirely on the breed, the climate, and the soil and, therefore, the sort of food available.

Among the foreign breeds the merino sheep stands first for the excellence of its wool, alike as regards the fineness of its texture, its waviness, and the number of scales on its surface.

The true merino sheep is a handsome animal, the female as well as the male being horned. It was originally a native of Spain, but has been introduced into nearly every sheep-rearing country in the world. Wherever these sheep are bred they are highly cultivated, the principal object being wool. The merino sheep of Saxony and Hungary are especially famous for both the quality and the quantity of their wool. The fleece of the Saxon merino ram is never less than 7 1/2 lbs. in weight, and it frequently reaches as much as 15 lbs.

These sheep have been introduced into England, and have greatly improved the English breeds. They have also been extensively introduced into Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

The Continental varieties are tended with great care, housed in stables during the night, and protected at all times from the inclemency of the weather. The sheep are frequently washed, not only in cold water, but also with lint water and soap. The wool is very highly prized, and the sheep, instead of being killed off for mutton, are allowed to live for ten or twelve years for the sake of their annual fleece. As a matter of fact, in many of the foreign countries where sheep are bred, the flesh is not considered fit for food. In Spain none but the poorest would think of eating mutton. Among the other varieties of sheep are the broad-tailed sheep of Asia Minor, Tartary, and Northern Africa. The heavy tail of this sheep is a mass of fat, often weighing as much as 20 or 30 lbs. This tail is considered a great delicacy for the table, and so much trouble is taken to preserve it from injury, that a small carriage is harnessed to the animal for the purpose of supporting it. This sheep is invaluable to the people of those regions. Its milk and its flesh supply them with food, and its wool, although very coarse, provides material for clothing.

Wool is, next to cotton, by far the most important material employed in the manufacture of textile fabrics. The woollen manufacture in the United Kingdom is estimated to give direct employment to more than a quarter of a million operatives; while the number of persons directly and indirectly engaged, in and for all the branches of the trade, from the time the wool leaves the farmer to the production of the manufactured article, is fully a million.

England's annual home-supply of wool ranges from 160 to 200 million lbs. weight. In addition to this, they import every year from 500 to 600 million lbs. of foreign wool, at a cost of about £25,000,000 sterling. Australian colonies supply the largest share of this, and every year marks an improvement in Australian wool, both as regards quality and quantity. It is estimated that the sheep-runs of New South Wales alone feed upwards of 30 million sheep.

It will readily be seen that the shearing of such immense numbers of sheep could never be accomplished by the ordinary means adopted by farmers in their comparatively small farms. The washing, which usually precedes the cutting of the wool, is done with the aid of machinery, and so expeditiously that three sheep can be well washed in two minutes.

A large wooden tank about 3 feet deep is sunk in the ground. This is partly filled with warm water, and the temperature is kept up by a steam pipe from an engine close by. This is known as the soaking tank, and the sheep are placed in it and rubbed over, the warm water loosening the dirt in the wool. On the edge of the soaking tank stands an iron tank raised about 8 feet from the ground. This is kept filled with cold water by means of a pump worked by the engine, and in the side of the tank, near the bottom, are several horizontal slits, which can be opened and closed at will. When they are opened the water pours from them in several torrents.

After the sheep have been soaked and rubbed sufficiently, they are held under these rushing streams of cold water from the upper tank, and this effectually washes away all the dirt from the wool.

Machinery is also used for removing in a marvellously rapid way the wool from the pelts in the tanyards, but the shearing of the live animals of course has to be done by hand.