Characteristics of Wool. The chief characteristic of wool is its felting or shrinking power. This felting property from which wool derives much of its value, and which is its special distinction from hair, depends in part upon the kinks in the fiber, but mainly upon the scales with which the fiber is covered. These scales or points are exceedingly minute, ranging from about 1,100 to the inch to nearly 3,000. The stem of the fiber itself is extremely slender, being less than one thousandth of an inch in diameter. In good felting wools the scales are more perfect and numerous, while inferior wools generally possess fewer serrations, and are less perfect in structure.
In the process of felting the fibers become entangled with one another, and the little projecting scales hook into one another and hold the fibers closely interlocked. The deeper these scales fit into one another the closer becomes the structure of the thread.
Classification of Wool. The various kinds of wool used in commerce are named either from the breed of the sheep or from the country or locality in which the sheep are reared. Thus we get Merino wool from Merino sheep, while English, American, and Australian wools are named from the respective countries. As the result of cross breeding of different sheep in different parts of the world, under different climatic conditions, physical surroundings, and soil, there exist a great many varieties of wool. The wool of commerce is divided into three great classes: (1) Short wool or clothing wool (also called carding wool), seldom exceeding a length of two to four inches; (2) long wool or combing wool, varying from four to ten inches; (3) carpet and knitting wools, which are long, strong, and very coarse.
The distinction between clothing or carding wools on the one hand, and combing wools on the other, is an old one. Combing wools are so called because they are prepared for spinning[2] into yarn by the process of “combing”—that is, the fibers are made to lie parallel with one another preparatory to being spun into thread. Carding wools—made to cross and interlace and interlock with one another—are shorter than combing wools, and in addition they possess to a much greater degree the power of felting—that is, of matting together in a close compact mass. Combing wools, on the other hand, are not only longer than the carding wools, but they are also harder, more wiry, and less inclined to be spiral or kinky. It must be understood, however, that under the present methods of manufacture, short wools may be combed and spun by the French method of spinning just as the long wools are combed and spun by the Bradford or English system.
Carpet and knitting wools are the cheapest, coarsest, and harshest sorts of wools. They come principally from Russia, Turkey, China, Greece, Peru, Chili, etc., and from the mountain districts of England and Scotland. Carpet wools approach more nearly to hair than other wools. The only staple of this class produced in the United States is grown on the original Mexican sheep of the great Southwest. Few of these Mexican sheep are left, for they have been improved by cross breeding, but they constitute the foundation stock of most of our Western flocks, which now produce superior clothing and combing wool.
Sheep Shearing. In order to get an idea of the importance of the sheep industry in the United States, one must take a glance at its condition in the big states of the West. Wyoming has more than 4,600,000 sheep within its borders. Montana, which held the record until 1909, has 4,500,000 sheep. Then comes Idaho with 2,500,000, Oregon with 2,000,000, and so on down the list until the nation’s total reaches 40,000,000 sheep, four-fifths of which are west of the Missouri river.
SHEEP SHEARING
To harvest the wool from such an enormous number of backs is a task that calls for expert shearers, men who can handle the big shears of the machine clippers with a skill that comes from long practise. The shearing must be done at the right time of the year. If the wool is clipped too early, the sheep suffer from the cold; if the shearing comes too late, the sheep suffer from intense heat, and in either case are bound to lose weight and value.
To meet the exacting conditions a class of men has risen expert in the sheep-shearing business. These shearers begin work in southern and middle California, Utah, etc. Another month finds them busy in the great sheep states of Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and Oregon, where they find steady employment until July, when they go to the ranges of Canada. In this way the shearers keep busy nearly all the year, and at high wages.