WOOL, the covering of sheep. See OVIS.
While the wool remains in the state it was first shorn off the sheep's back, and not forced into its different kinds, it is called fleece.
Each fleece consists of wool of divers qualities and degrees of fineness, which the dealers therein take care to separate.
The French and English usually separate each fleece into three sorts, viz. 1. Mother-wool, which is that of the back and neck. 2. The wool of the tails and legs. 3. That of the breast and under the belly.
The Spaniards make the like division into three sorts, which they call prime, second, and third; and for the greater ease, denote each bale or pack with a capital letter, denoting the sort. If the triage or separation be well made, in 15 bales there will be 12 marked R, that is, refine, or prime; two marked F, for fine, or second; and one S, for thirds.
The wools most esteemed are the English, chiefly those about Leominster, Cotswold, and the Isle of White; the Spanish, principally those about Segovia; and the French, about Berry: which last are said to have this peculiar property, that they will knot or bind with any other sort; whereas the rest will only knot with their own kind.
Among the ancients, the wools of Attica, Megara, Laodicea, Apulia, and especially those of Parentum, Parma, and Altino, were the most valued. Varro assures us, the people there used to clothe their sheep with skins, to secure the wool from being damaged.