in different parts of the world, under different
climatic conditions, physical surroundings, and soil, there exist a
great many varieties of wool. The wool of commerce is divided into
three great classes: (1) Short wool or clothing wool (also called
carding wool), seldom exceeding a length of two to four inches; (2)
long wool or combing wool, varying from four to ten inches; (3) carpet
and knitting wools, which are long, strong, and very coarse.

The distinction between clothing or carding wools on the one hand, and
combing wools on the other, is an old one. Combing wools are so
called because they are prepared for spinning[2] into yarn by the
process of "combing"--that is, the fibers are made to lie parallel
with one another preparatory to being spun into thread. Carding
wools--made to cross and interlace and interlock with one another--are
shorter than combing wools, and in addition they possess to a much
greater degree the power of felting--that is, of matting together in a
close compact mass. Combing wools, on the other hand, are not only
longer than the carding wools, but they are also harder, more wiry,
and less inclined to be spiral or kinky. It must be understood,
however, that under the present methods of manufacture, short wools
may be combed and spun by the French method of spinning just as the
long wools are combed and spun by the Bradford or English system.

Carpet and knitting wools are the cheapest, coarsest, and harshest
sorts of wools. They come principally from Russia, Turkey, China,
Greece, Peru, Chili, etc., and from the mountain districts of England
and Scotland. Carpet wools approach more nearly to hair than other
wools. The only staple of this class produced in the United States is
grown on the original Mexican sheep of the great Southwest. Few of
these Mexican sheep are left, for they have been improved by cross
breeding, but they constitute the foundation stock of most of our
Western flocks, which now produce superior clothing and combing wool.

=Sheep Shearing.= In order to get an idea of the importance of the
sheep industry in the United States, one must take a glance at its
condition in the big states of the West. Wyoming has more than
4,600,000 sheep within its borders. Montana, which held the record
until 1909, has 4,500,000 sheep. Then comes Idaho with 2,500,000,
Oregon with 2,000,000, and so on down the list until the nation's
total reaches 40,000,000 sheep, four-fifths of which are wes