Volume 1

Cassell's popular natural history.

Date:
[1865-1866]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cassell's popular natural history. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    742/824 (page 302)
    that common designation. Nor is that surprising when it is remembered that mitts, shirts, drawers, waistcoats, jackets, caps, leggings, braces, “polka jackets,” and other articles too numerous to recapitulate, all bear a family likeness, in so far as they are produced by the same kind of chain- stitch or loop, which imparts great elasticity. It is, however, a curious fact, that while the mateiial for all our worsted gloves is made in Leicester and its neighbourhood, many of the gloves are cut out and sewed up in Worcester and its vicinity. Men generally weave the stocking-web at Leicester, while women stitch it up into stockings. The weaving or knitting is about seven times the value of the stitching in every pair. There are three great central and western races of sheep in France : that of Choletui&e, having a dark circle round the eyes, a better form than in most of the other species, and a good fleece ; tliat of Berrkhome clu Grevant, which yields much milk and wool; and that of Larzac, a short, thick-set animal, with long, fibrous, but not very abundant wool; the milk, however, is plentiful, and from it the celebrated Rochefort cheese is made. Other remarkable sheep are those of La Charmois. In the Great Exhibition of 1851 there was a wool of singular and peculiar properties; the hair glossy and silky, similar to mohair, retaining at the same time certain properties of the merino breed. It was exhibited by M. J. L. Graux, of the farm of Mauchamp, Commune de J uvincourt (Aisne), as the produce of a peculiar vai-iety of the merino breed of sheep. The jury entered into an inquiry, not only into the commercial value and application, but into the production of this new kind of wool, and found it to be one of the very few instances in which the origin of a distinct variety of a domestic quadruped could be satisfactorily traced, and all the circumstances attending its development well authenticated. The following is a brief statement of this interesting case :— In the year 1828, one of the ewes in the flock of merinos, in the farm of Mauchamp, produced a male lamb, which, as it grew up, became remarkable for the long, straight, and silky character of the fibre of the wool, and for the smoothness of its horns : it was of small size, and presented certain defects in its conformation which have disappeared in its descendants. In 1829, M. Graux employed this ram with a view to obtain other rams having the same quality of -wool. The produce of 1830 included only one ram and one ewe having the silky quality of the -wool; that of 1831 produced four rams and one ewe with the fleece of that quality; but, in the year 1833, the rams with the silky variety of wool were sufficiently numerous of themselves to serve the whole flock. In each subsequent year tin; lambs have been of the two kinds—one preserving the characters of the ancient race, with the curled, clastic wool, only a little longer and finer than in the ordinary merinos ; the other resembling the rams of the new breed, some of which retained the large head, long neck, narrow chest, and long flanks of the abnormal progenitor ; whilst others combined the ordinary and better-formed body, with the fine, silky wool. M. Graux, profiting by this partial resumption of the normal type of the merino in certain of the descendants of the malformed original variety, at length succeeded, by a judicious system of crossing and interbreeding, in obtaining a flock combining the long, silky fleece, with a smaller head, shorter neck, broader flanks, and more capacious chest. Of this breed the flocks have become sufficiently numerous to. enable the proprietor to sell examples of the breed for exportation. The crossing of the Mauchamp variety with the ordinary merinos has also produced a valuable quality of wool, known in France as the “Mauchamp merino.” The fine, silky wool of the pure Mauchamp breed is remarkable for its qualities as -combing wool, owing to the strength as well as the length and fineness of the fibre. It is found of great value by the manufacturers of Cashmere shawls, being second only to the true Cashmere fleece in the fine, flexible delicacy of the fabric, and of particular utility when combined with the Cashmere wool, in imparting to the manufacture qualities of strength and consistence, in which the pure Cashmere is deficient. Alt hough the quantity of the wool yielded by the Mauchamp variety is less than in the ordinary merinos, the higher price which it obtains jn the French market (25 per cent, above the best merino wools), and the present value of the breed, have fully compensated M. Graux for the pains and care ho has manifested in the establishment of the variety. The original Spanish sheep were, according to Pliny, Solinus, and Columella, some black-fleeced, some produced red or Lrytlmean woo], and some, as those about Cordova, had a tawny fleece. The