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• Sheep have thick coat of hairy fibres on their body. It is called fleece. The skin of sheep have two types of hairs, Coarse beard hair and Fine soft under-hair located close to skin. Wool is obtained from fine under-hairs of sheep.
• There are other animals too, which provides wool. E.g. Yak wool is popular in Tibet and Ladakh. Angora goats found in hilly regions like Jammu and Kashmir provides Angora wool. Wool is also obtained from hairs of goats. The under-hairs of kashmiri goat are very soft, these are used to make fine shawls called Pashmina Shawls. In South America, animals such as Llama and Alpaca provides wool. Angora rabbit also provide wool.
• Rearing and breeding of sheep –
  • Raising of of sheeps for obtaining wool, meat, milk, skins and manure is called sheep farming or sheep rearing.
  • Sheep rearing requires the provision of facilities such as plenty of clean and fresh water, availability of green foods such as grass, provision of medication facility as well as transportation and marketing facilities. So sheep rearing is done in areas where these facilities are available. In India, sheep rearing is done mainly in hilly areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Sikkim and Arunachal pradesh. Sheep rearing is also done in plains of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
• Processing fibre into wool
  • Shearing – Shearing is the process of removing fleece and the thin layer of skin from the sheep body. Outer skin of the sheep is dead so they are not harmed. This process is carried out in hot weather.
  • Scouring – hairs obtain contains dust and dirt which should be removed before processing. Thus the sheared skin along with hairs is washed thoroughly to remove dirt. It is called scouring.
  • Sorting – cleaned hairs are taken to factory for separation as per their texture such as length and color. The fine hairs are used to make clothes while coarse hairs are used to make rugs.
  • Dyeing – the fibres are white, brown or black naturally, therefore other colors are used for dyeing. After dyeing the fibres are straightened, combed and rolled into yarn. This is how woolen yarn is obtained.
• Formation of silk fibre
  • Silk is a natural fibre
  • Its properties – soft, lustrous, elastic and strong
  • Silk varieties – Mulberry, Eri, Tasar and Muga
  • A female silk moth lay hundreds of eggs at a time. When the young organism growing in egg reaches the larvae stage it comes out of the egg. Now, the organism is known as caterpillar or also called silkworm. The silkworm feed on leaves of mulberry plant. When, it grows and is ready to enter in next stage of life cycle called pupa, it starts weaving a net around itself. It then swings its head from side to side forming a shape of 8. While doing so, the silkworm secretes a protein which on exposure to air becomes hard. This is the silk fibre. The silkworm covers itself completely and enters in next stage of its life cycle called pupa. The covering so formed is called, cocoon. Inside the cocoon, the pupa grows and becomes moth. The silk fibre is obtained from the cocoon of the silkworm.
• Sericulture
  • The rearing of silkworm for obtaining cocoons made of silk fibres is called sericulture.
  • A female silk moth lay hundreds of eggs at a time. These are stored on strips of cloth or paper carefully and sold to silkworm farmers.
  • These eggs are warmed under suitable conditions so that the young organism called larvae, break the shell and comes out of the egg.
  • The young organism that comes out is called caterpillar or silkworm eats the leaves of mulberry plant and grows in size.
  • Along with the mulberry leaf, the silkworm is kept in clean bamboo trays for about 25 to 30 days. After this time, the caterpillars stop eating and move to a small bamboo chamber.
  • They create net around them and produce cocoons with silk fibre. Inside the cocoon, caterpillar develops into silk moth. The cocoons are boiled, kept under the sun or exposed to steam. By doing so, the silk fibre separates out. The process of separating silk threads from cocoon of the silkworm, is called reeling.
  • Once, the end is obtained, these machines unwind the fibre from cocoon wound on reel.The spinning of silk fibres produce silk yarn or silk thread. By weaving the yarn, so produced silk fabric and then silk cloth can be formed.
  • In India, sericulture is done in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Assam-and-Bodoland, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu.