CHAPTER IX 

 WOOL-SORTING 



Sorting fleece-wool, pieces, stained wool, locks, lambs' wool, crutchings, 

 dead wool Wool-sorters' disease, " anthrax." 



WOOL-SORTING is the first process which greasy wool undergoes 

 when it is purchased by the manufacturer. Wool-sorting, or 

 grading, as it is sometimes called, is the dividing of the fleeces, 

 or pieces, into their respective spinning and other qualities. 

 Sorting must not be confounded with wool-classing, as the former 

 is done by the manufacturer, the latter, in most cases, by the 

 pastoralist, so that his clip is placed on the market in as even lots 

 as possible. This makes the sorting of classed clips much easier 

 than those that have not been classed at all. Each individual 

 fleece contains several qualities of wool, though Merino wool 

 does not vary in quality like the cross-bred. In most cases the 

 fleeces have burry and fatty wool all round their edges. These 

 burry edges are caused by the sheep lying down and the burrs 

 adhering to those portions of the wool which they come in con- 

 tact with namely, the wool on the britch or hams, also the wool 

 on the sides and belly. This burry wool is skirted or pulled apart 

 from the rest of the fleece and is sorted into its various spinning 

 qualities. The sorter will therefore have two sorts of wool of 

 the same spinning quality ; the only difference is that one contains 

 burr and the other is free from it. This burry wool has to 

 undergo the carbonizing process which I have described in a 

 previous chapter. In sorting fleece wool, the fleece is first opened 

 out on the table, and any brands it contains, such as tar and 



