150 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



at work as soon as shearing is over ; and for the reason 

 already stated, local agents must be principally relied 

 on. A portion of these are excellent judges of wool ; 

 but where the demand is active, inexperienced ones 

 are necessarily employed. To keep his agents duly 

 informed, and to protect himself from their indiscre- 

 tions, the principal, from time to time, sends out 

 prices which are not to be exceeded. The agent 

 works for a commission, and is, of course, anxious to 

 make large purchases. If the competition is to be 

 active, a scramble commences at shearing time. Three 

 or four or half a dozen agents start out from every 

 village. Relying more on the reputation of each 

 flock than on a business-like inspection of the quality 

 and condition of the wool, the least experienced agents 

 buy most rapidly, and then rush along eager to keep 

 the lead of or again repass other agents whose horses 

 are smoking on the same road. The excitement in- 

 creases. All wools worth within ten or fifteen cents 

 of the maximum price are dragged up within two or 

 three cents of it ; heavy yolky wools are purchased 

 at about the same price with clean ones ; in short, 

 scarce a shadow of judgment is employed.* 



* A farmer gave me an amusing instance of this. His wool was 

 just off. He stood in his barn door, and saw two agents approaching 

 with "fast nags." The first one rushed into the barn and asked the 

 price of the clip, and it came within his maximum. He asked where 

 the wool was, and was told it was in the dark granary. "Never 

 mind," said he, "I can tell just as well by feeling." So he stepped 

 into the granary, touched a few fleeces, took the farmer's offer, jerked 

 out $25 to "bind the bargain," sprang into his sulky and was off in a 

 whirlwind of speed. What the seller thought remarkable was, that 

 he could feel wool so well through his black kid gloves which he for- 

 got to take off while in the barn I And he had never handled the 

 wool before. 



