From this division every wool of English production is excluded. These wools, yielded by the Merinos, are employed, unmixed, in the manufacture of the finer cloths, and, combined with a small proportion of wool from the English breeds, in others of an inferior value. The average length of staple is about two and a half inches. These wools even may be submitted to the action of the comb. There may be fibres only one inch in length; but if there are others from two and a half to three inches, so that the average of the staple shall be two inches, a thread sufficiently tenacious may, from the improved state of machinery, be spun, and many delicate and beautiful fabrics readily woven, which were unknown not many years ago. [Illustration] CROSSING AND BREEDING No one breed of sheep combines the highest perfection in all those points which give value to this race of animals. One is remarkable for the weight, or early maturity, or excellent quality of its carcass, while it is deficient in quality or quantity of wool; and another, which is valuable for wool, is comparatively deficient in carcass. Some varieties will flourish only under certain conditions of food and climate; while others are much less affected by those conditions, and will subsist under the greatest variations of temperature, and on the most opposite qualities of verdure. In selecting a breed for any given locality, reference should be had, _first_, to the feed and climate, or the surrounding natural circumstances; and, _second_, to the market facilities and demand. Choice should then be made of that breed which, with the advantages possessed, and under all the circumstances, will yield the greatest net value of the marketable product.