THE SHEEP AND WOOL INDUSTRY 



produce a wool of that quality. It has a great length of staple 

 combined with exceptional fineness an unusual thing in fine 

 wools, as they are usually very short in the staple. 



The Victoria Western District wools are very light in condition 

 and clean to the tip, possessing a very even crimp, and last, but 

 not least, they give as high a percentage of clean scoured fine 

 wool as that grown in any other country in the world. Victorian 

 Western District wool is mostly purchased by the Americans, who 

 pay enormous prices for it. Tasmania is one of the noted sheep- 

 breeding centres in Australasia, and Merino studs bred there bring 

 very high prices at the sheep sales in Melbourne and Sydney. 



The wool from the Tasmanian Merino resembles that grown in 

 the Western District of Victoria. It is, however, slightly heavier 

 in condition. We will now come to the back country, where they 

 have great heat in the summer and numerous dust-storms, during 

 which the fine red sandy dust is blown with great force against 

 anything that happens to be in the path of the storm. I have 

 seen the fine-woolled type of Merino in this dry portion of western 

 New South Wales and similar places, but I do not consider it a 

 profitable wool to grow in these localities, for the following 

 reasons. You will notice that fine Merino wool possesses a very 

 decided and closely knitted crimp, and it is in most cases a wool 

 that has a fairly short staple. Take this fine-fibrecl wool in the 

 midst of summer, with a blazing sun shining down upon it ; the 

 fine, delicate fibre cannot resist it. It becomes perished and open, 

 and after the first dust-storm it will be noticed that the sand has 

 been blown right through the wool, down to the skin, especially 

 on the back of the sheep. These fine crimped fibres hold the 

 sand firmly. Once in, it has practically no chance of getting out 

 again, and the wool becomes perished, mushy, and lifeless. In 

 some cases the wool on the centre of the sheep's back loses its 

 staple altogether. The young sheep, such as the Hoggets and 

 four-tooth wethers, resist the heat and sand better than any other 

 sheep in the flock, but when you look at the breeding ewes you 

 will see what poor fleeces these fine-woolled sheep grow in 

 localities such as I have mentioned. In a good many instances 



