shire, and especially the Aire and Calder district, possesses many natural advantages favorable to the establishment and conduct of trades requiring good water. A range of mountains composed principally of scar, limestone, and Yoredale rocks, capped with millstone grit, forms the western boundary, and sends down numerous spring-fed rivulets and streams to wind and flow over the entire breadth of this portion of the county. The graduated fall affords means of obtaining water power, and the numerous valleys offer favorable sites for storage reservoirs. The vast numbers of mills and dyeworks (upwards of 5,000) established since the commencement of the present century, and the rapid growth of the worsted and woollen trades of the West Riding, clearly indicate that the natural advantages of this part of Yorkshire are great. There are not only spring and river water, but there is also cheap fuel obtained from the local coal field, enabling the manufacturers to supplement water power with steam, and in numerous instances to obtain all the power required from steam alone. Abuses in the district by throwing solids into running waters and by pollution have, however, become in some cases destructive to trade, and in numerous cases prohibitive to further extensions, some branches of trade having migrated to Scotland, where water less polluted is obtainable.

The various processes to which water is put in cleansing wool and in manufacturing woollens and worsteds, may be stated as follows:

1. Scouring the wool with a ley and hot water to remove grease and dirt.

2. Washing with clean cold water.

3. Dyeing when the cloth is to be wool-dyed.

4. Scouring cloth with fuller's earth to remove oil and size.

5. Dyeing when piece-dyed.

6. Milling or fulling with soap and warm water, either in the fulling stocks or in the improved milling machines, where the cloth is squeezed between rollers.

7. Scouring to remove the soap.

8. Boiling cloth to give it a permanent face.

9. Steaming to take away the liability of the finished cloth to spot. Dirty water may be used for power, but even for such purpose it is a nuisance, and for washing and dyeing water may be so polluted as to be injurious even to dark and coarse goods, and totally unfitted for cleansing and dyeing fine fabrics.

The vast interests involved in the wool, woollen, and worsted trades of Great Britain are set forth in the following statistical tables kindly furnished to the commission by Mr. Jacob Behrens, vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce of Bradford.

TABLE A.-Estimate of the produce of wool in the United Kingdom from 25,795,708 sheep, based upon a return made for Great Britain on the 5th of March, 1866, and for Ireland in 1865.

MEM.-The number of sheep in Ireland under one year old is supposed to bear the same proportion to the whole number as that given in the return for Great Britain.

TABLE B.-Estimate of the quantity and value of wool and similar material worked up in worsted and woollens.

MEM.-Imports, exports, and values from Board of Trade tables for 1864, except quantity of English wool, for which see A.

TABLE C.-The exports of wools, tissues, and yarns, and the quantity of foreign wool worked up in the years 1844, 1854, and 1864.

Comparative percentage of the exports of worsted and woollen manufactures to the other textile fabrics in 1864.

TABLE D.-Estimate of the value and weight of wool and similar material manufactured into worsted and woollen yarns and tissues in the United Kingdom, 1864.

TABLE E.-Estimate of the value and weight in 1864 of the wool and similar material worked up with it into worsted and woollens for export and home consumption.1

Cotton and other material worked up with the above, exclusive of exports.

13, 200, 000 1,200,000 2,984, 175

Total..

149, 700, 000

£33, 600, 000

1 In this estimate all English wool is considered as worked up into worsted, and that which is worked up into woollens is supposed to be more than balanced by the foreign wool (Russian, Australian, and others) in worsteds.

Under the name of shoddy, which occurs so conspicuously in the foregoing tables, an enormous weight of material is used which, until recently, was waste. Shoddy was first introduced into use about the year 1813, at Batley, near Dewesbury. Mungo was adopted in the same district, but at a later period. Shoddy is the produce of soft woollen rags, such as old worn-out carpets, flannels, Guernseys, stockings, and similar fabrics. Mungo is the produce of worn-out broad or similar cloths of fine quality, as also of the shreds and clippings of cloth. It was stated at our inquiry that the term arose in consequence of the difficulty at first of manipulation. A manufacturer gave some of the materials to his foreman, who, after trial in the shoddy machines, came back with the remark, "It winna go;" when the master exclaimed, “But it mun go!" These woollen rags are collected, packed in bales, and are imported from Russia, Egypt, Turkey, the entire area of Europe, India, China, and, in fact, from all parts of the world where woollen garments are worn, and rags produced and can be collected. They come to Yorkshire from districts where plague, fever, small-pox, and loathsome skin diseases extensively prevail. The bales are opened and the rags are sorted by human fingers before being placed in machines, which break up, tear, separate, and cleanse the fibre for manufacturing uses. According to the evidence we obtained no disease has ever broken out among the persons who so manipulate these old woollen rags, although in many of the countries in which they are collected they are believed to be peculiarly plague-bearing materials. The lapse of time in collecting, storing, and transmitting these rags, as also the possible destruction of any special poisons, by friction or otherwise, must be taken into account. The whole of the facts deserve, however, the serious attention of those persons who insist that the power of communicating disease is contained in a dangerous manner by woollen goods which have been worn by persons suffering from contagious diseases. The experience obtained by

the manipulation of shoddy, for upwards of 50 years, proves that old woollen rags are not in any degree dangerous to the health of those who work among them.

The shoddy trade, as now carried on in the West Riding, is a remarkable instance of the utilization of waste material. The term "shoddy" was, in the first instance, one of reproach, but this has ceased to be. Shoddy now enters into honorable companionship in official returns with British and foreign wools, mohair, silk, and cotton, and is used by manufacturers throughout the woollen and worsted districts. By recent returns (1866) the total weight of wool and goats' hair-of home and foreign growth-used, was about three hundred and ten millions of pounds; the total weight of shoddy and extracts for the same period was about seventy-four and one-half millions of pounds, or some thirtythree and three-quarter thousand tons; so that shoddy now forms near one-fifth, by weight, of the woollen and worsted manufacture of the district. The woollen trade of Great Britain could not be carried on to its present extent without shoddy.

Shoddy is mixed with wool in proportions from one-third to two-thirds shoddy or mungo, and is used in the manufacture of cheap broadcloths, fine cloths for ladies' capes and mantles, pilots, witneys, flushings, friezes, petershams, duffels, houleys, paddings, linings, cloths used for rough and loose great-coats, office-coats, and trousers, pea-jackets, and blankets. A considerable quantity is used in the form of flocks for beds. Felted cloth is extensively manufactured; it dispenses with spinning and weaving, depending on the felting property of wool by reason of the curl in the fibre. The process is carried on by the aid of warm moisture, pressure, and milling; such cloth is used for table-covers, horse-cloths, carpets, paddings, druggets, and the coarser and thicker kinds for covering steam boilers, steam pipes, and ships' bottoms beneath the copper. Some of the finer and better class of felted cloths are printed.

The manufacture of shoddy and mungo need not produce any special pollution. The rags are torn into fibre by machines specially prepared, and the dirt, dust, and fine particles of wool are blown out in such manner that this refuse can be collected and sold for manure. About one-seventh, by weight, of shoddy is so cleaned out as waste in preparing it. The price obtained for it as manure varies from 10s. to 20s. per ton. Some of the richer sort of waste shoddy is sent into Kent as a dressing for hop-growing.