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Show ; Steep (EwwEwe j - LrKeC.-: i gtaiMiK 'j ' V r.JS' -'fcV. lwwfw"-J Before and After Shearing. Prepared by National Geni:raphlc Society. Washington,- D. C WNU Service. SHEEP -owners of the United States produce about 350,000.000 pounds of wool annually, or enough to supply each inhabitant inhabi-tant of this country with a wool garment gar-ment weighing nearly three pounds. The lowly sheep, from which comes the world's yearly wool supply of slightly slight-ly less than three and a third billion pounds, is no respector of persons or geography. A meeting of all the world's wool growers would reveal a motley gathering of all creeds and colors, from Icelanders to South Africans, Afri-cans, from Canadians to Argentines, from Siberians to Indians. There also would be present natives of many islands is-lands of the seas. The sheep-raising industry is pretty well confined to the temperate zones, however, though some flocks graze near the Equator in high altitudes, and others are found in the Arctic, where there is sufficient forage. The world's sheep population is more than 500,000,000 a quarter as great as the human population. Australia, Aus-tralia, although a comparative youngster young-ster in the w-ool industry, is the world's leading wool producer. India and China are the outstanding sheep coun- tries of Asia. Argentina and Uruguay ! have the heaviest sheep population in j South America. The greatest concentration concen-tration of sheep herds in Africa is along the Mediterranean coastal zone from Gibraltar to Tunisia, and in South Africa. Every country of Europe Eu-rope raises sheep, but in Norway, Sweden and Finland there are few flocks, scattered over wide areas. The United States, with upwards of 50,000,-000 50,000,-000 head of sheep, is the only country in North America that has taken to wool growing in a big way. Where America's 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 "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 1932, its contribution to the United Staffs' pile of wool was about 57,000,-000 57,000,-000 pounds, or about one-sixth of the wool produced in this country. Montana, Mon-tana, whose sheep gave up more than 32.000,000 pounds in the same year, ranked next to the Lone Star stab', with Wyoming, Oregon, Utah, Califo: - nia, New Mexico, Idaho, and Ohi:. ' each of which produced more than 15,-000,000 15,-000,000 pounds, following in the order named. As in the case of cotton,, historians and naturalists have been stumped by I the query, "when and where was wool i nrst used?" Sheep and wool are mentioned men-tioned in the Bible and it is known that the Romans practiced sheep breeding. Some of their prize animals wore jackets to protect the fleece. Shortly after the beginning of the Christian era an Italian took several , 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 Im-prove the latter's fleece. The growth of the wool Industry in the United States has been phenomenal. phenom-enal. Two years after Capt. John Smith and his followers landed on the Virginia coast the first sheep were Introduced In-troduced into America at their settlement. settle-ment. Twenty-one years later a ship-i ship-i ment of the fleecy animals from Eu-j Eu-j rope was landed on the Massachusetts I coast. Indians' appetites, predatory animals and severe winters made serious seri-ous inroads on the colonial flocks, so most of the animals were kept inside town walls, on islands, and on peninsulas penin-sulas fenced off from the mainland. While Indians no longer are a menace to wool growers, predatory animals, parasites, 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 the North. Private homes then were America's woolen factories. The American Amer-ican wool trade began when fjieep-owning fjieep-owning families exchanged their wool and surplus homespun for other commodities. com-modities. With the increase In colonial coloni-al population the demand for wool cloth rose and the federal government as well as local governments encour aged wool growing. By 1S10, just two centuries after the sheep arrived from England, there were 7,000,000 sheep grazing over the settled area of eastern United States. Four years later there were 10,000,000. About this time foreign wool flooded the United States markets and the wool industry was as hard-hit as other industries in the panic of 1S19. As large American cities and towns took form, demand for homespun waned and factory-made woolens took their place. Prices paid for wool by manufacturers encouraged sheep raising rais-ing so that by 1S40 the range of the animals had spread from the Atlantic to every state east of the Mississippi, as well as to Missouri and Louisiana. With the western migration in the middle of the last century went sheep. By 1SG0, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Arkansas, Texas, California and the areas that now are Oregon and Arizona, Ari-zona, joined the wool-growing regions. Two decades later, there was not a state in the Union that did not have a sheep population of at least 50,000. By 1933 the "national flock" had grown to more than 50,000,000. To sheep, many regions of the world owe at least partially their discovery and growth, for these animals often have been the companions of pioneers. Magellanes (formerly Punta Arenas), Chile, the southernmost city of South America, was saved by the fleecy animals. ani-mals. The city was an Important coaling coal-ing and ship supply station for craft doubling Cape Horn before the completion com-pletion of the Panama canal. The canal stripped It of former prestige, and even many of Its staunchest citizens prophesied Its doom. Smart business men, however, saw th.e 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, Magellanes still is a thriving port. How Fleeces Are Handled. While, in a few remote regions of the United States, homespun is worn, factories have almost entirely erased the home Industry from this country. One of several hundred modern American Amer-ican manufacturing companies normally normal-ly operates 60 wool mills that employ 40,000 workers. A display of one company com-pany recently included 3,500 different styles of wool fabrics. Wool greatly differs In quality. The same breed of sheep in the same country coun-try may produce different qualities of wool. The best wool grows on a sheep's 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 in bags containing contain-ing from 100 to 500 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 the sorters tear the fleeces apart. In some wool-growing countries wool Is washed before it is sheared from the sheep. Unwashed 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, soapy water. From the washers it is conveyed to drying rooms and thence to carding rooms where it begins 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 commerce. com-merce. Although the United States normally produces about one-tenth of the world's annual wool clip, it is only a little more than half of the wool required by American cloth and carpet manufacturers. American manufacturers manufac-turers 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 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 reshlpped to other countries. London Is the largest wool market of the world. |