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Wool (Fleecy covering or pile of he)

the fleecy covering or pile of he sheep, and some other animals, as the alpaca, the vicuna, and some species of goats. Wool is generally divided into three classes, long, short, and coarse or carpet wool; and these are divided into three classes, long, short, and coarse or It differs from all other varieties of hair by the corrugated nature of its fibers, due to the epithelial scales which overlap the course of its fibers, under certain conditions, from their corrugation, interlock with each other and form a tain conditions, from their corrugation, lap the course of its fibers, under cer- due to the epithelial scales which overpulled or clipped fleece wool. Pulled To this wool is pulled by felted fabric. Wool is divided into interlock with each other and form a by the roots from the skin from the living one. is used in cloth manufacture, and is frequently called clothing wool. class belong the Saxon and Silesian wool Short-staple wool of Germany, a portion of the wool of Australia, of the Cape of Good Hope, Buenos Aires, Russia, Canada, and the bulk of the wool produced in the United States, all being of immediate or remote Australia, of the Cape of Good Hope, of Germany, a portion of the wool of of these are about in the order in which they are inserted above, the S WOOL being best adapted to the very finest qualities of broadcloths. wool may vary in length from 1 to 3 or 4 inches; if it be longer it requires to be cut or broken to prepare it for manuing, for example, depends entirely on it. is well known. The process for hat mak- facture. The felting property of wool cut or broken to prepare it for manu- 4 inches; if it be longer it requires to be is well known. The process for hat makwool may vary in length from 1 to 3 or The wool of which hats are made is neither spun nor woven, but locks of Short-staple it being thoroughly intermixed and compressed in warm water cohere and form spun, woven, and then, being put in the a solid tenacious substance. Cloth and pressed in warm water cohere and form it being thoroughly intermixed and com- neither spun nor woven, but locks of woolen goods are made from wool posoperation contracts in length and fulling mill, the process of felting takes place. The strokes of the mill make the essential to the beauty and strength of fibers cohere; the piece subjected to the compact and uniform. This process is breadth, and its texture becomes more done by passing the wool through heated woolen cloth. But the long wool of which stuffs and worsted are made is deprived of this felting process. This is in or feat iron combs, which takes away the lamfeathery part of the wool, and apessential to the beauty and strength of cotton. Long-staple wool is also called combing wool and delaine wool. To this proximates it to the nature of silk or inæ or feathery part of the wool, and ap- iron combs, which takes away the lamclass belong the long lustrous, downcombing English wool of Leicester, Lincheviot of Scotland, and the combing wool of Canada, Ohio, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, New York, Maine, and other parts of the United States, all derived ing of Rambouillet of France; the from the Leicester or other English soft long -staple wool of Australia; the most esteemed for women's dress goods, such as merinos, cashmeres, thibets, and the like; the cheviot for Scotch tweeds, and the English usually for worsted blood. The French and Australian are vary in length from 3 to 8 inches. The used for hose, and are spun softer than long-combing wools; the former being goods. The American wools of this class are of medium quality. Long wool may latter into soft worsted yarn. To the made into what is called hard and the shorter combing wools are principally are adapted for carpets, belong the Donnative South American, Cordova, Valthird class, the coarse-staple wools which paraiso, native Smyrna, and other wool. made into what is called hard and the ski, and other coarse Russian wool, the countries, and in third class, the coarse-staple wools which The art of forming wool into cloth are adapted for carpets, belong the Don- WOOL 1200, and the manufacture became extensive in the reign of Edward III. (1331). The policy of England toward the American colonies was directly intended to discourage and repress manufactures of all kinds, those of woolen goods included. The actual result was that the domestic manufactures of coarser or "home-made" cloths became very widely spread and considerable, and the importations of foreign cloths were proportionately small. society organized in the limits of the present State of New York, in 1765, deprecated the use of foreign cloths and adopted various measures for increasing the home manufacture, even to rules requiring that the flesh of sheep and lambs should not be eaten nor the animals slaughtered. The supply of wool appears to have been large, and it was mostly worked up and disposed of within the colonies. Many thousands of weavers and cloth workers are said to have come over about the year 1774. The report of Alexander Hamilton on manufactures, in 1791, speaks of a mill for cloths and cassimeres in operation at Hartford, Connecticut, but conveys a doubt whether American wool was suitable for fine cloths. In 1794 there was a woolen factory in Newbury, Mass., and in the same year a carding machine for wool was put in operation in Pittsfield, Mass. President Madison's inaugural suit of black broadcloth was made at Pittsfield in 1804. The United States has produced the best invention for making felted goods, carpetings, and the like of any other country. The census of 1810 gives for New York the number of looms (largely in private hands) as 33,068 with 413 carding machines, 427 fulling mills, and 26 cotton factories. The total value of woolen manufactures for the United States in the same year was estimated at $25,608,788. From this time the domestic manufacture seems to have fallen off rapidly, and the succeeding census returns must be taken as indi cating mainly the reproduction of factories.

The total production of wool in the United States in 1919 was 307,459,000 pounds, from 35,979,000 fleeces. The State having the largest wool production was Wyoming, with 33,415,000 pounds; Idaho was second, with 22,145,000 pounds; Montana third, with 17,750,000 pounds; ; Utah fourth, with 15,800,000 pounds; and Texas fifth, with 14,986,000 pounds. Other States producing over 5,000,000 pounds annually were California, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Washington, South Dakota, Arizona, Colorado, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, and Pennsylvania. There were in 1919 WOOLLEY 444,892,834 pounds of raw wool imported in the United States, with a value of $19,486,001.