Canadian Wool

CANADIAN WOOL

Quite a lot of western wool is of a merino character, and of a very useful order. There is a tendency to the incidence of grey fibres which might be better controlled by careful elimination of undesirable breeding types. The grading of wools in the cross-bred classes is after the U.S.A. pattern, and takes the form of quarter-blood, three-eights-blood, half-blood, etc., and is quite a good designation in indicating the merino element in any strain. The eastern wools are coarser, and more British in character, indicating the influence of our well-known home breeds in fixing their types. But much of the Canadian wool is faultily " got-up," and quite a lot is full of vegetable matter, due, no doubt, to the artificial feeding during the winter months, with the continual dropping in the wool of seed, grass, and other vegetable feeds. As a substitute for hosiery wools, many Canadian varieties are quite useful.