英文科学读本 第六册·Lesson 25 Varieties of Wool

Lesson 25 Varieties of Wool

In our former investigations into the general properties of wool, and the leading facts connected with the woollen trade and manufacture, we dealt only with the wool of the sheep and, generally speaking, whenever we think of wool, it is the sheep's wool that we mean.

Other animals, however, besides the sheep yield valuable wool; we shall now proceed to examine them and their products, one by one.

They are all ruminants; among them the most closely allied to the sheep is the goat. The common goat has a more or less coarse covering of long hair, but some of the goat family are clothed in wool of excellent quality.

The most important of the wool-bearing goats is the Asiatic, or, more properly speaking, the Angora goat. It has a long, white, silky fleece, which is clipped annually, and averages from 2 to 3 lbs. in weight.

Angora wool is in great demand; England's annual imports reach, on an average, 7,000,000 lbs. weight, and are valued at £1,000,000 sterling. It is known as "mohair," and it varies in quality according to the length and fineness of its staple and the softness and silkiness of its appearance. The manufacture of this wool is confined to the West Riding of Yorkshire.

The Angora goat has been transported from its original home into many parts of the world, and is now successfully reared in South Africa, in several of the Australian colonies, and in the United States, especially on the western or Pacific slopes. In all these places the stock is increasing rapidly, as the animals are exceedingly prolific.

In very close relationship to the Angora goat are the Thibet, Persian, and Circassian goats. Indeed, all four are one and the same animal, differing only according to the varying conditions under which they live.

The Thibet, more generally known as the Cashmere goat, has long been famous for the soft, downy silkiness of its wool. The best of it is known as pashum, or shawl wool, and is manufactured locally into costly shawls. Much tedious care and labor are bestowed on the production of these shawls, each part of the process being allotted to separate individuals. Indeed, it is said that the manufacture of one pair of shawls has been known to occupy every member of a workshop for a year and a half. As a consequence of this extreme care on the part of the manufacturer, these Cashmere shawls are very expensive and greatly prized. The production of a single shawl often represents as much as £600 or £700; and Eastern potentates always bestow these costly shawls upon their most distinguished visitors, as a special mark of their favor.

The llama is another important wool-bearing animal. It is a native of South America, where it is used as a beast of burden. Even the cottagers of Peru have their little flocks of these animals, perhaps a dozen or more, to carry their goods to market. The more important traders usually drive them, with their burdens, in flocks varying from 500 to 1000.

The llama wool is not exported from Peru, as it is much in demand locally for the manufacture of carpets, sacking, and ropes. The llama family include, in addition to the llama itself, the alpaca, the vicuna, and the guanaco.

Of these the most important by far, as regards the wool, is the alpaca. The fleece, which is shorn annually, averages from 7 to 12 lbs. in weight, and is superior to the wool of the sheep for the length and softness of its fiber.

The Peruvians set such high value on this animal that they long guarded it with jealous care. The consequence was that the value and beauty of alpaca wool were unknown to Europeans till quite recent years.

Sir Titus Salt introduced it into this country, and set up the manufacture of alpaca goods in the village which has since been called Saltaire from his name, and is today a flourishing town.

England's annual imports of alpaca wool now average from 4 million to 5 million lbs. weight, and the alpaca manufacture ranks as one of their staple industries.

The manufacture of vicuna wool is still in its infancy, although this wool is said to be superior, in many respects, to alpaca wool. The wool of the guanaco is not yet imported to any large extent into this country.

The camel, both as a beast of burden and also as a wool-bearing animal, is to the East what the llama is to the people of South America.

The wool of the camel is shorn every spring. That of the two-humped camel is highly valued for the soft silkiness of its staple, and is made into costly articles of clothing. A shawl made of camel's wool often fetches as much as £180.

Camel's hair is imported into this country mostly for the manufacture of delicate brushes or pencils for painting. The camel is a marvellous example of Nature's beneficence in fitting each animal for the special conditions under which it has to live. No other animal would be so suited to those regions, either in its wild state or as a domesticated beast of burden.

In those dreary wastes of sand food and drink are to be obtained only at long intervals apart. Nature provides the camel with what would seem at first sight an ugly, awkward encumbrance, in the shape of an enormous hump on its back. That hump, however, is nothing but a huge mass of nutriment, from which the creature can draw during the time of scarcity of proper food. In this animal, moreover, the honeycomb bag, which is common to all ruminants, becomes a receptacle for storing a large supply of water, so that a severe drought is of very little moment. It has cutting teeth in both jaws, and powerful grinders for masticating the rough, prickly vegetation, which is the only sustenance it can find on those sandy wastes. Its eyes, ears, and even its nostrils are specially protected against the clouds of loose, shifting sand which often fill the air. Its foot consists of two toes, and has wide-spreading cushions, which prevent the animal from sinking into the loose sand at every step, and even its knees are provided with thick, hard skin, or callosities, to enable it to kneel on the burning sand without injury. It always kneels to rest, and while it is being loaded.