WOOL OR WHEAT ?
W001 is not a substitute for wheat and we are never likely to return to the days when English wool was, the most famous in Europe. But the fleeces of our sheep are peculiarly good, and our wool is receiving, and ought to receive, increasing attention. Especially the ingenious and most practical expe- riments of Professor Barker of Leeds promise genuine benefits. He has lately proved that even a merino may grow at least as heavy a fleece here as in its almost native place. This does not mean that we should keep pure merinos. It is enough that merinos brought from the hills of South America have been most successfully crossed—as I saw the other day in Yorkshire—with our hill sheep, and the progeny have flourished even exuberantly. This should mean that our hill sheep in the north may carry valuable fleeces and not lose their har- diness. Professor Barker—who has done so much to revive the cult of Wensleydale sheep—tells me that he does not regard his experiments as a conclusive proof of his theses. He would be content if the world would regard his work as evidence of a valuable line of research, both in farming and science. It is certainly that. It is certainly more than that, as Bradford will confess, not less whole-heartedly than York- shire and northern farmers.
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