Photographs by courtesy of
The American Woolen Co.
Grading fleeces
CHAPTER I
THE RAW MATERIAL
1. Sheep Raising
Early History
The raising of sheep goes so far back into primitive times that historians have been compelled to draw a veil over its origin. Whether sheep antedate man, or man existed before sheep, is a question that has never been authoritatively answered. For our purposes very little history will suffice. We know that sheep were raised in Biblical times, but we do not know much about them. We do know, however, that the old Romans practised sheep-breeding with great care and even went so far as to cover their animals with cloth in order to preserve the clean quality of the fleece. During the reign of the Roman Emperor, Claudius (A. D., 50), an Italian named Columella, took several Italian sheep to Spain and crossed them with the native Spanish Merino breed. It is said that the resulting type is the progenitor of all the Merino breeds which now form the basis of sheep-breeding. Under the rule of the Saracens, Spain became not only a great sheep-raising country, but a woolen manufacturing country as well. In the thirteenth century there were no less than sixteen thousand looms in the town of Seville alone.
Spain
When the Saracens were driven out by Philip III. the textile industry disappeared from Spain, but sheep husbandry, which did not require skilled labor, remained, and Spanish wool continued to be the finest in the world.
Europe