stitchel

English

Noun

stitchel

1. (dialect) A kind of hair found intermixed in the wool of some breeds of sheep; kemp.
   • 1800, James Anderson, Essays Relating to Agriculture and Rural Affairs, page 168:

     If the Cornish farmer, and others who, like himself, are possessed of a breed of sheep yielding very coarse wool, or such as is mixed with stitchel hair ( kemps ) instead of sitting down contented with these as the best that his situation would admit of, had, with a discerning attention, studied to better his breed, he might have reaped from thence, long ere now, some very essential benefits.

   • 1807, The Complete Farmer:

     This wool contains a great deal of yolk or oil, which is apt to entangle the dust of the fields, so as often to form a kind of mat nearly an inch in thickness; it is remarkably, or rather wholly free from stitchel hairs or kemps.

   • 1809, John Lawrence, A general treatise on cattle, the ox, the sheep, and the swine, etc, page 544:

     Kemps, stitchel hair, or cats hair, in colour white, grey, or brown, are commonly much coarser than the wool in which they are found, and often so intermingled with it, as not to be separated even by the motion of the scribling machine.

   • 1816, J. Parrish, “On British Wool, and on the Anglo-Merino Breed of Sheep”, in Massachusetts Agricultural Journal, volume 4, page 147:

     The long coarse-woolled sheep, by his crosses, have debased the fleece abundantly, giving the wool stitchel hairs; and even the fine part of it is but hungry stuff, no better than flocks, seldom seen in the distinct kinds, unless the sheep were unhealthy, or fed on unhealthy land or scanty pasturage.