Show chip everywhere ew adanga 0 v t 1 4 00 jr ml id 0 f 4 04 4 before and after shearing hearing prepared by national geographic G society washington D C service owners of the united states produce about pounds of wool annually or enough eru ih to supply each inhabitant of tills country with a wool garment weighing wel shing nearly three pounds the doiy sheep from which comes the worlds early wool supply of slightly less than three and a third billion pounds Is no re of persons or geography A meeting of all the worlds wool growers would reveal a motley gathering of all creeds and colors from Ic elanders to south africans from canadians to Ar gentines from siberians Sibe rians to indians there also would be present natives of many islands lands of the seas the sheep raising industry is pretty well confined to tile temperate zones however though some flocks graze near th the equator in high altitudes and others are found in the arctic where there Is sufficient forage the worlds sheep population Is more than a quarter as great as the human population australla australia although a comparative youngster in the wool industry Is I 1 the ie worlds leading wool producer I 1 india d I 1 a and china are arc the outstanding sheep countries of asia argentina and uruguay have the heaviest sheep population in south america the greatest concentration of sheep herds in africa Is 13 along the mediterranean coastal zone from gibraltar to tunisia and in south africa every country of europe raises sheep but in norway sweden sveden and finland there are few flocks scattered over wide areas the united states with upwards of head of sheep Is the only country in north america that has taken to wool woo growing in a big way where americas sheep are about four fifths of the sheep in the united states graze in the mountains and on the plateaus and plains west of the mississippi river texas which has been dubbed the die cotton state and the sulphur state because of its supremacy in the production of these commodities also has earned the right to be called the wool state in 1032 1932 its contribution to the united states pile of wool was about pounds or about one sixth of the wool produced in this country montana whose sheep gave up more than 3 pounds in the same year ranked next to the lone star staf with wyoming oregon utah callao new mexico idaho and ohl ohel i each of which produced more than 15 pounds following in the order named As in the case of cotton colton historians and naturalists natura lists have been st stumped py by tile the query when and where was wool first used sheep and wool are mentioned in the bible and it Is known that the romans practiced sheep breeding some of their prize animals wore jack jackets ets to protect the fleece shortly after the beginning of the christian era an italian took leeral sheep from italy to spain to breed them with the native merino sheep incidentally the merino sheep produce the finest of wools and have been bred with many other inferior sheep to improve the batters lat fleece the growth of the wool industry in the united states has been phenomenal two years after capt caal john smith and his followers landed on the virginia coast the first sheep were introduced trod into america at their settlement twenty one years later a shipment of the fleecy animals from europe was landed on the massachusetts coast indians appetites predatory animals and severe winters made serious inroads on the colonial locks flocks so most of tile the animals were kept inside town walls on islands and on peninsulas fenced oh off from the mainland while indians no longer are a menace to wool growers predatory animals parasites sod and poisonous plants still cause great losses to the industry growth of the wool industry As cotton clothed the colonists of the south wool clothed those of tile the north private homes then were americas woolen factories the american can wool trade began when sheep owning families exchanged their wool and surplus homespun for other commodities modi ties with tile the increase in colonial population the demand for wool cloth ruse rose and the federal government BS as well as local aged wool growing by 1810 just two j s n t r t r ear div atra e fm f m were N ere sheep grazing over the settled area of eastern united states four years later there were TO about this time foreign wool flooded the united states markets and the wool industry wits was as hard hit as other industries in the panic of 1819 As large american cities and towns took form demand for homespun waned and factory made woolens took their place prices paid tor for wool by manufacturers encouraged sheep ra ising so that by 1810 1840 the range of the animals had spread from the atlantic to every state east of the mississippi as well as to missouri and Loul louisiana louisian sian with the western migration in the middle of the last century went sheep ny by 1800 iowa wisconsin minnesota arkansas texas california and the areas that now are oregon and arizona joined the wool growing regions two decades later there was not a state in tile the union that did not have a sheep population of at least by 1033 1933 the national hock flock had grown to more than to sheep many regions of the world owe at least partially their discovery and growth for these animals often I 1 have are been the companions of pioneers Magell ancs formerly punta arenas chile the southernmost city of south america was saved by tile the fleecy animals the city was an important coaling and ship supply station for craft doubling cape horn before the completion of the panama canal the canal stripped it of former prestige and even many of its staunchest staunches citizens prophesied its doom smart business men however ho Never saw raw the possibilities of sheep industry on the surrounding mainland and nearby islands and turned their faces from the sea to the land for their livelihood thanks to sheep magallanes Mage llanes still Is a thriving port how fleeces are handled while in a few remote regions of 0 the united states homespun Is worn factories have almost entirely erased the horns home industry from this country one of several hundred modern american manufacturing companies normally operates GO wool mills that employ workers A display of one company recently included 3 0 50 different styles of wool fabrics wool greatly differs in quality the same breed of sheep in the same country may ma produce different qualities of wool the best wool grows on a cheeps shoulders and sides when a sheep Is sheared the fleece holds together the whole fleece then is tied and with other complete fleeces Is placed for shipment to in bags containing from to pounds each at the factory expert workmen sort the wool some sorting tables are covered with wire netting through which dust and other loose foreign matter falls while tile the sorters tear the fleeces apart in some wool growing countries wool Is washed before it Is sheared from the sheep UnAa unwashed shed fleeces contain grease from the skins of the animals after sorting the wool Is scoured by passing it through a series of vats of warm warin soapy water from the washers ashers it Is conveyed to drying rooms and thence to carding rooms where it be begins ins tile the journey that ends in woolen cloth and other wool products worsted fabrics are made of yarns whose fibers are parallel while woolens are made of fibers crossed and mixed foreign matter that cannot be washed from the fleece Is destroyed by chemicals burrs are removed by machinery wool Is constantly moving in corn commerce although the united states normally produces about one tenth of the worlds annual wool clip it Is only a little more than half of the wool required by american cloth and carpet manufacturers american manufacturers call upon the wool growers of australia argentina uruguay south africa china england and many less important wool producing countries for additional raw material england la is the leading importer of wool for most of the export wool from all the leading wool producing regions of the globe Is shipped to british markets much of it is re shipped to other countries london Is tile the largest wool market of the world |