Journal of Agriculture. [8 Jan., 1908. 



FARMERS' WOOL CLIl'S. 



H. ir. Ham, S/iecp Expert. 



The disposal txD advantage of small and medium sized farmers' clips 

 has given for vears a deal of trouble and extra work to our woolselling 

 firms, who show at all times a genuine desire to obtain the highest possible 

 returns for such clips. Such a number of conditions and influences operate 

 that It is impossible to say that what is done by one farmer and the price 

 obtained by him for his various sorts must hold good for another farmer, 

 even if the breed of sheep is identical and the farms adjoin. 



The desire with a large clip is to avoid star lots, that is, lots of less 

 than four bales. In a .small grower's clip, this is impracticable but sorts 

 should be kept distinct and even lines made of as many bales as possible. 

 The aim should be to give confidence. If e\-ery sort is separate, one 

 knows exactly how much there is of each, and if each sort can be seen, 

 and is proportionate to the size of the clip, then it is taken for granted 

 that all sorts are even and not mixed; so little of a clip can be seen 

 without undue cutting of bales, that a buyer must judge by this means. 

 If he has an order for say medium grade crossbred, and he sees the 

 fine fleeces in one lot, and the coarser ones in another, and the pieces, 

 bellies, &c., in other separate lots, then he naturally concludes that the 

 medium grade he has orders for, is even and like the sample shown. 

 The general impression with small farmers is that "wool is wool," and 

 that a wool buyer takes all and every sort that the broker in an unwary 

 moment, puts too low a value on. What would interest and cause many 

 small farmers to do this work better, is to know that various grades and 

 sorts have different uses, and that w^hilst many mills ha\"e machinery to 

 work some wools, they are not buyers for other sorts. 



Sheep owners should never forget that wool can be kept separate at a 

 fractional cost in the shed at shearing time, and that it costs ten times 

 as much, and is sometimes impossible of separation,, when once mixed 

 and pressed up. It cannot lessen the value of a small grower's clip 

 to have all sorts well separated. If the broker finds it advisable to sell 

 the sorts separately he can do so, but if he decides to interlot them, 

 it is then possible for him to adopt that cour.se. In the case of merinoes, 

 when wool is plentiful and buyers are paying most attention to lines, 

 it is often advisable, in order to obtain best net results, to catalogue two 

 classes together, for when clean scoured they are both suitable for the 

 one purpose, yet in the grease, owing to difference of yield in clean wool, 

 it is necessary to know exactly how much of each there is. 



In cleaning up after shearing, lamb-raisers, with 100 to 200 sheep, 

 find that they have a little of each sort, which they put into bags. This 

 practice is wrong. It is usually done to save a pack, but at the usual 

 price of bags, assuming a farmer uses four or five, it comes to nearly the 

 price of a pack, which is about three shillings. Bag lots are sold at bag 

 sales, and lose the competition of the better class of buyers. On the 

 other hand if each lot is put in the pack in order of meiit, and divided 

 with a piece of hessian, one thickness between each sort, it is offered 

 at the main sales. A line should be drawn on the outside of the bale, 

 opposite w^here the division is, by placing two stencil plates about half 

 an inch apart. Supposing the wool is bought by a local woolscourer, it 



