From this division every wool of English production is excluded. These
wools, yielded by the Merinos, are employed, unmixed, in the manufacture
of the finer cloths, and, combined with a small proportion of wool from
the English breeds, in others of an inferior value. The average length
of staple is about two and a half inches.
These wools even may be submitted to the action of the comb. There may
be fibres only one inch in length; but if there are others from two and
a half to three inches, so that the average of the staple shall be two
inches, a thread sufficiently tenacious may, from the improved state of
machinery, be spun, and many delicate and beautiful fabrics readily
woven, which were unknown not many years ago.
[Illustration]