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12 INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1876. wools of Australian production can be used for clothing, but by no means all for combing. There are limits as regards length of staple, in the first place, and other requisites, such as soundness and elasticity, necessary for the latter purpose. It will be clear, therefore, that, within these conditions, no line of distinction can be drawn above or below which it can be said that this or that sample is a clothing-wool and a clothing-wool only, a combing-wool and a combing-wool only.” The committee, in their interrogatories, proposed for combing-wool the following points of excellence, or questions, which should distin guish a true combing-wool, viz., 1st, weight; 2d, color or lustre; 3d, length ; 4th, freeness ; 5th, fineness; 6th, elasticity ; 7th, softness ; 8th, soundness ; 9th, evenness of fleece; and requested their respond ents to divide a thousand points among them according to their respective values. J. T. Simes & Co. reply: “ Soundness is the first requisite in comb ing descriptions; next, length up to three and a half inches for fine Merino. This desideratum is a most essential one in combing de scriptions. We should place the characteristics of a Merino combing- wool in the following order and value : Soundness, 300; length, 250; freeness, 175; weight, 100 (important to growers); evenness, 75; elasticity, 50; fineness, 50. Lustrous color is scarcely an element in Merino combing.” H. Schwartze: “ Soundness and quality, not singly but combined, constitute the most valuable feature of a combing-, small growth and softness that of a clothing-wool.” Hazard & Caldicott give the following statement of the relative importance of qualities in combing-wools: Length, 170; density, 60; softness, 80; fineness, 50; elasticity, 90; evenness of fleece, 80; soundness, 170; weight, 150. A similar question was proposed by the Agricultural Society in relation to the desirable qualities of clothing-wools. To this Jacomb, Son, & Co. reply : “ The chief requisites of a good clothing-wool are fineness, density, softness, and fitting qualifications.” H. Schwartze : “ Small growth, softness, etc., combined, constitute the most valuable features of a clothing-wool.” J. T. Simes & Co.: “ Clothing-wool may be estimated by the fol lowing points : Firmness, 300; softness, 200 ; density, 150; evenness, 100; elasticity, 100; weight, 100; soundness, 50.” Hazard & Caldicott give the following statement for clothing- wools: Length, 50; density, 140; softness, 80; elasticity, 170; even ness of fleece, 80; soundness, 80; condition, 140; weight, 150. As to the question whether combing- or clothing-wools are likely