Alexandria Daily Gazette, Commercial & Political

Mr. Curtis has favored us with the promised work of Bakewell on Wool, a work of much science and originality, and calculated to throw a very considerable light upon this important and national subject.
So interesting to all true lovers of their country, must our domestic concerns at this time appear, that we feel a peculiar pleasure in being able to present our patrons with these important documents, which at once display the resources of other nations, and imperiously call for an exertion of our own.
Observations on the influence of Soil and Climate upon WOOL. ; from which is deduced a certain and easy method of improving the quality of English Clothing Wools, and preserving the health of Sheep ; with hints for the management of Sheep after shearing : an enquiry into the structure, growth, and formation of wool and hair ; and remarks on the means by which the Spanish breed of Sheep may be made to preserve the best qualities of its fleece unchanged in different climates.
By ROBERT BAKEWELL.
occasional Notes and Remarks, by the RIGHT HON. LORD SOMERVILLE.
SOME of the most valuable discoveries in the useful arts have been made by a careful attention to a few simple facts, which were too common and obvious to excite curiosity, or attract general notice. We are disposed by habit to overlook what passes every day before our eyes, and to seek in remote causes for explanations of various phenomena, when a little patient observation would convince us, that the objects of our inquiry are immediately within the compass of our view. This deviation from simplicity obscures our researches, and frequently vitiates our conduct in the more important concerns of life: not only does it retard the application of known facts to the discovery of useful truths, but it prevents the communication of such discoveries when once made, from the fear that they may be thought too plain and simple to deserve public notice.
It may be necessary to premise these remarks, as an apology for directing the attention of those who are desirous of improving the quality of English Clothing Wools, to a manner of effecting it so easy, that it may perhaps be deemed too unimportant to deserve a trial. I trust, however, I can make it appear, that it is possible, with very little expense, and without any change in the stock or pasture, to increase the value of many kinds of fine wool from twenty-five to thirty per cent. and at the same time to enlarge the fleece, and improve the condition of the sheep.
Having been introduced into the wool business at an early period of my life, one of the first things which engaged my attention was, the remarkable difference in the softness of wools equally fine, but the produce of different districts. The soft, silk-like feel peculiar to some wools, was not then so highly valued as at present, from causes I shall afterwards explain ; it gave however a decided preference in the market to wools distinguished by this quality. A little attention to the wool from various districts, soon discovered that the soils most favorable to the production of this soft quality were, first, the argillaceous ; next, the siliceous ; and it was well known that calcareous soils, whether limestone or chalk, produce wools of a contrary quality, remarkable for their harshness to the touch. In proportion as the above earths preponderate in a loose state near the surface of different soils, their effects on this quality of the wool may be detected, whatever be the breed of sheep from which the wool be shorn.
Hence it did not appear unreasonable to believe, that the herbage of each district derived from the difference of soil some peculiar properties, which gave to it as the food of sheep, the power of affecting that process of the animal economy by which wool is produced. That some of the qualities of wool may be changed, not by the nature of the herbage on which the flocks feed, but by its quantity, I admit ; in this instance, however, I had sought for a cause too remote, and overlooked what may be literally said to lie immediately on the surface. Considering the effect of soils on the softness of the wool as depending on the food, a limit appeared fixed to any improvement of this quality, and the subject was dismissed from my attention.
[To be continued.]