Fine wool sheepFine wool sheep produce wool fibers with a very small fiber diameter, usually 20 microns or less. Fine wool sheep account for more than 50 percent of the world's sheep population. Found throughout Australia,, South Africa, South America, and the Western United States, most sheep of this type belong to the Merino breed or its derivatives. 

The Rambouillet, related to the Merino, is the most common breed of sheep in the U.S., especially the western states where the majority of sheep in the U.S. can still be found. Fine wool sheep are best adapted to arid and semi-arid regions. They are known for their longevity and strong flocking instinct.

Long wool sheepLong wool sheep produce long-stapled wool with a large fiber diameter, usually greater than 30 microns. Long wool sheep are best adapted to cool, high rainfall areas with abundant forage. They are commonly raised in England, Scotland, New Zealand, and the Falkland Islands. In the U.S., the fleeces from the long wool breeds are popular among handspinners. Popular breeds include Border Leicester, Coopworth, Cotswold, Leicester Longwool, Lincoln, and Romney.

Medium wool meat sheepMeat or "mutton-type" sheep produce wool, mostly medium (or long), but are raised more for their meat qualities. Medium wool sheep account for about 15 percent of the world's sheep population. The most popular meat breeds in the U.S. are Dorset, Hampshire, Southdown, and Suffolk.

Fat-tailed sheepFat tailed or fat-rumped sheep are so-named because they can store large amounts of fat in the tail and region of the rump. Fat-tailed sheep are found mostly in the extremely arid regions of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. They often produce wool, but are raised primarily for meat or milk production. Fat-tailed sheep comprise 25 percent of the world's sheep population. The only fat-tailed sheep raised in the U.S. is the Karakul.

Acıpayam is a breed of domesticated sheep originated in Turkey. They are a dual-purpose breed (wool and meat). The Acıpayam originated from Assaf crossed with Awassi and Dagliç ewes.

Alai is a breed of domesticated sheep found in Kyrgyzstan. This breed is a dual purpose breed raised for its meat and wool.[1]

Alpines Steinschaf (German for alpine stone sheep) is a breed of domesticated sheep found in southernGermany and Austria. This breed is used for wool, meat and Vegetation Management. As of 2006, there were less than 300 with the number increasing.[1] The Alpines Steinschaf is a direct descendent of the extinct Zaupelschaf.[

The Arkhar-Merino is a sheep breed. This breed was produced by crossbreeding between wild Arkhar rams and Precoce merino ewes in theKurmektinski research station between 1934 to 1949 in Kazakhstan, then in the Soviet Union.[1] This station is located between Kungei and Zailiiskii mountains in the Alma Ata region. The Arkhar-Merino has a firm and expanded skeleton. It is also bulky with long legs and broad chest. The average staple length is 6.24 to 8.08 cm in different regions of body. The average rate of wool fat is 11.95%. The average fiber diameter is 22.99 in ewes and 23.51 in ram. The greasy fleece weight is about 4.19 kg. In 1994 the Arkhar-Merino sheep was transformed to Arasbaran research station which is attached to the Research Center for Natural Resources and Domestic Animals of East Azerbaijan (This station is located in theKhodaafarin district).

The Arapawa Sheep is a breed of feral sheep found primarily on Arapawa Island in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand, where they have probably been isolated since they were introduced in 1867.[1]Although there are many theories of how the sheep arrived, it is generally accepted that they are descendents of Merino strains from Australia.[2] The New Zealand Rare Breeds Conservation Society classifies this breed as "rare".[1] This breed is raised primarily for wool.

Askanian (Ukrainian: Асканійський, Askaniysky, full name: Асканійська тонкорунна вівця) is abreed of domesticated sheep found in Ukraine. It is a fine-wool breed bred for its wool. It was developed by crossing American Rambouillet with Merinos in the early 1900s.

The Baluchi (also known as Baluchi dumda, Mengali, Taraki, Shinwari, Araghi, Farahani, Kermani, Khorasani, Khurasani, Naeini, Neini, Yazdi) is a domesticated breed of sheep originating from now southwest Pakistan, eastern Iran and southern Afghanistan. It is a member of the fat-tailed breed.[1] The Baluchi is raised primarily for wool.

Bond sheep are an Australian sheep breed that was developed around 1909 near Lockhart, New South Wales by Thomas Bond when he mated Saxon-Peppin Merino ewes to stud Lincoln rams for primarily wool production.[1] The resulting progeny was selected on the basis that they would be more suited to the Riverina environment. Initially these sheep were known as ‘the CommercialCorriedale’.

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The Clun Forest is a breed of domestic sheep originating from the area surrounding the Clun Forest in Shropshire.[1] Similar to many of the British breeds of upland sheep, Clun Forest are hardy, adaptable, good foragers, and are long–lived.[1] With sleek heads and wide pelvic structures, Clun Forest ewes lamb easily.[2] The breed has a short to medium–length wool and dark brown faces. They are a multi–purpose animal, kept for meat, wool, and milk.[2] Like other dark faced sheep, Clun produce quality lamb and mutton. However, in contrast to more common meat breeds such as Suffolks, their wool is free of undesirable black fibres and kemp, and is suitable for handspinning.[1] The breed's alert and stylish appearance, together with its reputation for hardiness and fecundity have made it popular with hobby farmers and large commercial flock owners alike.

Pashmina from Nepal are the best in quality because of the conditions to which the mountain goats have adapted over centuries. The high Himalayas of Nepal have a harsh, cold climate and in order to survive, the mountain goats have developed exceptionally warm and light fiber which may be slightly coarser and warmer than cashmere fibers obtained from lower region goats.[citation needed]Nepali pashmina is called Chyangra Pashmina. Ladakh pashmina is also similar to the Nepali pashmina as the Ladakhi pashmina is produced in similar high altitudes of chanthan on the India\China border at Kashmir.

Pashmina refers to a type of fine cashmere wool and the textiles made from it and were first woven in India.[1][2] The name comes from Pashmineh (پشمینه), Persian for "made from "Pashm" (meaning "wool" in Persian).[2] The wool comes from changthangi or Pashmina goat, which is a special breed of goatindigenous to high altitudes of the Himalayas in India, Nepal and Pakistan. Pashmina shawls

are hand spun, woven and embroidered in Nepal and Kashmir, and made from fine cashmere fibre.[

The Changthangi or Pashmina goat is a breed of goat from Tibet or neighbouring areas in theLadakhi Changthang, usually raised for meat or cashmere wool (known as pashmina once woven).

These goats grow a thick, warm fleece. They survive on grass in Ladakh, where temperatures plunge to as low as −20 °C (−4.00 °F). These goats provide the wool for Kashmir's famous Pashmina shawls.Shawls made from Pashmina wool are considered very fine, and are exported worldwide.

Noori, the world's first cloned Pashmina goat, was cloned at the Faculty of Veterinary Sciences and Animal Husbandary of the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir(SKUAST) in Shuhama, 25km east of Srinagar, on March 15, 2012.

The history of the silkworm, which is also the story of silk, goes back to ancient times in China. Some of the stories have been handed down through the generations and are probably based party on fact and partly on legend and myth. The tale which persists is that about 2,640 B.C. a Chinese empress, Si-Ling-Chi, was watching the glistening amber cocoons that little worms were spinning in the mulberry trees in the palace gardens. She unwound one of the threads on a cocoon and found that it was one, very long strand of shiny material. Fascinated, she pulled strands from several cocoons through her ring to form a thicker thread. Eventually, with the help of her ladies of the court, she spun the threads into a beautiful piece of cloth to make a robe for the emperor, Huang-Ti. This magnificent material, silk, became known at the "cloth of kings".

For thousand of years on the royal family of China had silk. The Chinese kept the secret of how silk was made for 2500 years. The material was sold to the rulers of the West, but the source of the shiny thread that made the material was not revealed. The penalty in China for telling that the silk came from the cocoons of the little silkworms was death! Some very strange ideas were formulated as to the origin of silk. Here are a few: Silk came from the colored petals of flowers in the Chinese desert, silk was made of wondrously soft soil, silk came from a spider-like animal that ate until it burst open and the silk threads were found inside its body, and silk came from the silky fuzz on special leaves. These ideas seem far-fetched today -- but in ancient times they were serious theories.

Legend has it that the Japanese carried off four Chinese maidens, who knew the secret of silk, along with mulberry shoots and silk moth eggs. TodayJapan is the leading producer of silk! Another story is that a Chinese princess married an Indian prince. She carried silkworm eggs and mulberry shoots in her elaborate headdress and the secret of raising silkworms in her head, thus spreading the culture of silk to India. Finally, two poor monks told Emperor Justinian of Constantinople that they had learned the secret of silk. Justinian send them back to China to get some eggs and mulberry shoots for him. They returned many years later with the eggs and shoots hidden inside their hollowed-out walking sticks. Since Justinian was the emperor of Constantinople, a crossroads city, the secret soon spread throughout Europe. There are many more interesting stories about the history of silk.

The Silkworm (Bombyx mori) is the larva or caterpillar of a moth that is important because it makessilk. It is entirely dependent on humans and no longer lives in the wild; silk has been made for at least 5000 years in China. Silkworms eat mulberry leaves. They are native to northern China.

Silkworms are very hungry. They eat mulberry leaves day and night. Silkworm eggs take about ten days to hatch. When the colour of their heads turns darker, it means that it is time for them to shed their skins. After they shed four times, their bodies turn slightly yellow and their skin becomes tighter, which means they are going to become a pupa. While they are a pupa, they turn into moths. Before becoming a pupa, the silkworm wraps itself in a cocoon, to help protect itself. The silkworm is called a

silkworm because it spins its cocoon from raw silk that it makes in its mouth. Many other larva produce cocoons, but only a few silkworms are used to make silk.

The appearance of silk[edit]

The earliest evidence of silk was found at the sites of Yangshao culture in Xia County, Shanxi, where a silk cocoon was found cut in half by a sharp knife, dating back to between 4000 and 3000 BCE. The species was identified as bombyx mori, the domesticated silkworm. Fragments of primitive loom can also be seen from the sites of Hemudu culture in Yuyao, Zhejiang, dated to about 4000 BCE. Scraps of silk were found in a Liangzhu culture site at Qianshanyang in Huzhou, Zhejiang, dating back to 2700 BCE.[1][2] Other fragments have been recovered from royal tombs in the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 – c. 1046 BCE).[3]

During the later epoch, the Chinese lost their secret to the Koreans, the Japanese, and, later, the Indians, as these cultures discovered how to make silk. Allusions to the fabric in the Old Testament show that it was known in western Asia in biblical times.[4] Scholars believe that starting in the 2nd century BCE the Chinese established a commercial network aimed at exporting silk to the West.[4] Silk was used, for example, by thePersian court and its king, Darius III, when Alexander the Great conquered the empire.[4] Even though silk spread rapidly across Eurasia, with the possible exception of Japan its production remained exclusively Chinese for three millennia.

In China, there is a legend that the discovery of the silkworm's silk was by an ancient queen calledLeizu. She was drinking tea under a tree when a cocoon fell into her tea. She picked it out and as it started to wrap around her finger, she slowly felt something warm. When the silk ran out, she saw a small cocoon. In an instant, she realized that this cocoon was the source of the silk. She taught this to the people and it became common. There are many more legends about the silkworm.

The Chinese guarded their knowledge of silk. It is said that a Chinese princess smuggled eggs to Japan, hidden in her hair.[1] The Japanese also love silk. It takes 5000 silkworms to make a single kimono.

The silkworm cocoon