ly setting the standard for the lower
grades. The highest quality of wool in the United States is found on
full-blooded Merino sheep.

=Merino Wool.= The Merino sheep was bred for wool and not mutton. The
fleece of this breed is fine, strong, elastic, and of good color; it
also possesses a high felting power. Though naturally short, it is now
grown to good length and the fleece is dense. The Merino sheep is a
native of Spain, and Spain was for a long period the chief country of
its production. It was also in past centuries extensively bred in
England and English wool owes much to the Merino for the improvement
it has effected in the fleeces of other breeds of English sheep. It
was also introduced into Saxony and was highly bred there, and Saxony
soon came to surpass Spanish wool in fineness, softness, and felting
properties. The Merino was introduced into the United States at the
beginning of the nineteenth century. By 1810, 5,000 Merino sheep had
been imported and these 5,000 sheep formed the basis of most of the
fine wool-producing flocks of our country to-day.

The terms half blood, three-eighths blood, and quarter blood refer to
the full-blooded Merino standard. As the scale descends the wool
becomes coarser, the wool of a quarter blood usually being a
comparatively coarse fiber. The general classifications of fine,
medium, coarse, and low, refer to the relative fineness of Merino
combing wools. These distinctions naturally overlap according to the
opinion of the parties in transactions. Picklock XXX and XX represent
the highest grades of clothing wool, the grade next lower being X, and
then Nos. 1 and 2. These again are used in connection with the
locality from which the wool is grown, as Ohio XX, Michigan X, New
York No. 1, etc.

=Difference Between Lamb's and Sheep's Wool.= One of the first points
to be understood in wool sorting is the difference between the wool of
lambs and one-year-old sheep, and that of sheep two or more years old.
Lamb's wool is naturally pointed at the end, because it has never been
clipped. It is termed hog or hoggett wool, and is more valuable when
longer, of about fourteen months' growth. It is finer in quality and
possesses more waviness, which is a help in the process of spinning.

The wool of sheep two or more years old is known as wether. The ends
of the fiber from such sheep are thick and blunted, on account of
having been previously cut. It is necessary to be able to tell at o