WOOL 



Trade 



WOOL AND PASHM 



New Eoute. 



Classification. 



British Supply. 



direct touch with the buyers in Europe, and hence London lost its su- 

 premacy in the traffic. In modern returns of the British trade, wool is 

 dealt with under the following headings : (1) Alpaca, Vicuna and Llama ; 

 (2) Goats' Wool or Hair, Mohair (Angora goats' hair) ; and (3) Sheep or 

 Lambs' Wool. Of the last mentioned, the following statement for the 

 past five years may be given : the countries that supply 10 million pounds 

 and over being alone mentioned and the last three figures omitted as a 

 matter of convenience : 



Statement of Wool Supplies into Great Britain (omitting last 

 three figures). 



India's 

 Contribution. 



It will thus be seen that the supply of wool drained from British India, 

 whei_ compared with that from Australia and New Zealand, is unimportant. 

 From the Indian point of view, however, it is very considerable, since it 

 represents an amount that might with great advantage have been worked 

 up locally and been thus employed to contest the import traffic in foreign 

 manufactured woollen goods. 



RAW WOOL. Little or no information can be furnished as to the 

 total production of wool in India. According to the Agricultural Statistics, 

 there were estimated to have been in India during 1905-6, 18,029,181 

 sheep and 25,172,701 goats. It has further been ascertained that a yield 

 of one seer (2 Ib.) of wool per annum would fairly represent the yield of 

 each plains sheep, and something like three seers that of the hills. But 

 it may be added that the returns just mentioned ignore the sheep and 

 goats of the alpine tracts, more especially those across the frontier, from 

 which a large portion of the finest wool of India is derived. And more- 

 over, in the tropical portions of the plains, the sheep yield very little true 

 wool : in fact their fleeces are so poor that they are often not even clipped, 

 the animals being reared purely and simply as sources of mutton. On 

 the other hand, many of the goats yield hair of such a quality that it may 

 be used for some of the purposes for which wool is employed, if indeed 

 goats' hair be not sometimes mixed with wool. And, of course, the under- 

 Tibetan Supply, fleece of the Tibetan goat constitutes the pashm or wool, of which repeated 

 mention has to be made in this article. It thus seems safe to assume 

 that one seer per sheep, on the herds actually registered, might be ac- 



1128 



Raw Wool. 



Tield. 



Inferior 



