The Present Trend of Wool Research

J. I. Hardy

J Anim Sci 1932. 1932:238-241.

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238 THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANIMAL PRODUCTION

placed in dry lots and fed as follows: Lot 1, full fed; Lot 2,
full fed; Lot 3, two-thirds full fed; and Lot 4, one-third full
fed. On October 1, Lot 2 was changed to the Lot 4 ration and
will be so fed until F e b r u a r y 1, when it will be changed back
to a full ration.
The feed mixture consists of 60 pounds ground hay, 30
pounds of rice bran and 10 pounds cottonseed meal.
On October 1, three ewes in Lot 4 showed marked losses of
wool.
At the beginning of the experiment, June 9, a small area
on the right shoulder was clipped down to the skin. On Sep-
tember 30, a small smaple of wool was taken from this area
of each ewe and the sample measured for length, diameter
and crimp. These results are shown in Table 1.
TABLE l : - - S U M M A R Y OF WOOL DATA

Lot 1 2 3 4

Ave. length, cm .............. 3.75 3.95 3.20 2.75

Percent increase over Lot 4 .. 36.36% 43.64% 16.36% 0.00
Ave. diam. of fiber--
ten thousandth of inch .. ,.. 10.36 10.27 9.52 9.50
Ave. crimp per inch ......... 6.79 6.80 7.43 7.93

The standard deviations of the mean differences, calculated

by Fishers analysis of variance method are as follows: length,
.3704; diameters of fiber, .3002; and crimps per inch, .3551.
F r o m this it is evident t h a t the plane of nutrition has a sig-
nificant effect upon the rate of growth, the diameter and the
crimp of wool fibers. If there is a more or less constant rela-
tionship between diameter of fiber and tensile strength as
o t h e r data indicate (see, "Textile Fibers," b y M a t t h e w s - -
John Wiley and Son) then it should be expected t h a t the plane
of nutrition has a marked influence upon the strength of wool
fibers.

T H E P R E S E N T T R E N D OF WOOL R E S E A R C H
J . I . HARDY

U. S. Department o/ Agriculture
In view of the unusual opportunity I had during the past
y e a r to study at first hand some of the work now in progress

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 THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANIMAL PRODUCTION 239

in Europe, I shall confine m y r e m a r k s chiefly to wool research

in England, which seems to me r a t h e r typical of some of the
best t h a t is being done, and represents an ideal in cooperative
effort between the wool grower and the wool manufacturer.
During the past decade rapid progress has been made in
wool research in England, Germany and the United States.
It is interesting to note that a similar progress took place dur-
ing the f i r s t quarter of the 19th century. At t h a t time it
was carried on as pioneer work with the early development of
the textile industry. Now it is being undertaken along with
the many other programs in agricultural and industrial re-
search to ascertain the precise and basic nature of wool, the
mechanism of its growth and its possibilities or limitations
as a textile material.
For more than a hundred and f i f t y years there has been
an interest in the dimensional characteristics of wool as relat-
ed to the production of better wool. During this period both
the wool growers and m a n u f a c t u r e r s have helped to keep
the investigations on wool a live issue. The early work, large-
ly dimensional studies, was for the most part upon diameter,
length and crimp.
The work on sheep by Y o u a t t in England in 1837 shows
that early in the 19th century m a n u f a c t u r e r s and sheep breed-
ers were well informed on such properties of wool as trueness,
soundness, softness and elasticity. Here we find t h a t the ser-
rations were first observed upon wool in England on F e b r u a r y
7, 1835. May, in Germany, in his book on sheep in 1868 shows
six different methods for measuring the diameter of the dif-
ferent grades of German wools. His reports upon the chemical
composition of wool show that the chemical study of wool had
then been given much consideration. Bowman of England, in
his treatise on wool in 1885 discusses in a comprehensive man-
ner the various properties of wool. While there have been
m a n y other workers on wool during this period it is believed
t h a t these three works m a y serve as milestones of progress
in wool research.

New Methods Introduced

During the f i r s t p a r t of the present century new methods

of measuring the properties of wool have been discovered and

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240 THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANIMAL PRODUCTION

old ones revived and improved. Resulting from this new im-
petus to wool research there have been important basic con-
tributions to our knowledge of wool. We now know t h a t wool
g r o w t h m a y v a r y considerably throughout the y e a r both in
diameter and length of fiber and that under uniform feeding
and conditions of good bodily health sheep produce wool at a
uniform rate. I m p o r t a n t facts concerning crimp in wool have
been established by the British Research Association in Leeds,
England. The most prominent of these facts is t h a t the forma-
tion of crimp in wool is a periodic function of time. In other
words, when a lock of wool grows at a varying rate through-
out the y e a r the portion of the lock which grew f a s t e s t will
be found to have the same number of crimps over a definite
period of time as the part which grew slower for a similar
time interval. It is interesting to note t h a t this point was
suggested to the British Research Association by a sheep
breeder in West Australia who discovered it while observing
the rate of wool growth on some of his sheep. While these are
important facts t h e y are only one step towards the goal of
discovering the controlling and limiting factors of wool
growth. Much work needs to be done upon the structure of
the hair follicle during various stages of growth. The w r i t e r
was pleased to learn t h a t at least one English zoologist has
been carrying on such investigations during the past two
years. These results will probably bring us another step to-
ward the b e t t e r understanding of the workings of the hair
follicle. One worker in Germany has been carrying on feed-
ing investigations with individual sheep under v e r y rigid con-
trol and close observation. The results of these investigations
will probably throw some light upon the behavior of the wool
follicle when the animal is under different planes of nutrition.
It is hoped t h a t when these investigations are published t h e y
will be a stimulus for other workers to carry on f u r t h e r studies
upon wool along these lines. Dr. S. G. Barker, Director of t h e
British Wool Industries Research Association, very aptly
stated, "One of our g r e a t needs is for facilities to carry out
experiments involving single animals or small groups. These
m u s t be available for daily and even more frequent observa-
tion, so that the growth factors of wool fiber m a y be closely
investigated and intimately observed." There is much need
for wool research in this country that is carried out under

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 THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANIMAL PRODUCTION 241

such close observation both from the standpoint of physiology

and nutrition.

Physical and Chemical Properties of Wool

The physical and chemical properties of wool have been
studied in both England and Germany. The work of the Tex-
tile Department of the University of Leeds under the direction
of Prof. A. F. Barker has been outstanding upon the intimate
structure of wool. Speakman has found that the wool fiber
is constructed from micelles which are lamellar in shape. Along
with this discovery he has found many other important facts
which are real building stones in wool research. Astbury,
in the same department, is interpreting the structure and
properties of wool and hair through the use of the X-ray. This
work is opening new possibility in wool fiber research and
should help materially in determining the chemical structure
of wool.
As regards laboratory equipment there seem to be two
schools of wool research workers. One of these schools vir-
tually tells the instrument maker what he wants to accom-
plish and receives the finished equipment. The membership
of this school i s r a p i d l y diminishing. The other school builds
much of its own equipment from inexpensive modernmechan-
ical construction parts, glass, tin and sealing Wax. The im-
portant point is that today it is possible to construct much
good wool testing equipment capable of great accuracy at a
nominal cost. It is therefore possible to work on many wool
problems with a comparatively small appropriation. Regard-
less of the kind of equipment the wool workers may use, the
important question is accomplishments. The trend in wool re-
search is towards greater accuracy in procedure, simpler and
quicker methods of attack and an objective which will lead
ultimately to the discovery of the behavior of wool during
growth and of its intimate structure.

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