WOOL-SORTING 61 



All cotted wools have to be kept in qualities by themselves. In 

 large wool-combing establishments they have a wool-classer who 

 classes all the fleece wool into its qualities and lengths, and keeps 

 short, tender, and cotted wools separate, so that the sorter will 

 not be troubled with keeping out tender and short wools. His 

 work will be confined to making separate sorts of the free and 

 burry wool, also stains, and any variations in the quality of the 

 fleece, as a Merino fleece may have wool of 58*5 or 56's quality 

 at the britch end. In sorting pieces sorters are seldom asked 

 to pick out tender or short wools and grade them separately. 

 The sorts I have named are not made in every sorting shop, 

 or scouring establishment, as some do not purchase enough 

 wool to make large lines and usually work two or more 

 qualities together. 



We will next take the low wools, such as locks, crutchings, 

 etc. Locks consist of all the very short fribby bits, such as 

 second cuts, and little scraps of wool that fall from the fleece 

 during shearing, and are too short to allow them to be combed. 

 Locks are sorted on quality, but the sorter does not have to 

 separate them except in a few cases, such as small dealers' 

 bales, which are often made up from bag lots of every quality ; 

 in these bales you would very likely get Lincoln quality locks 

 mixed together with fine Cross-bred or Merino quality locks. 

 The sorter would have to separate them, but each quality is 

 generally in a layer by itself. They can therefore be separated 

 and each individual quality sorted by itself. In most cases a 

 bale of locks is sorted for Merino or ^-bred, or any quality 

 that predominates in it, as it would not be practical to separate 

 a few J-bred quality locks that are mixed through a bale of 

 ^-bred quality locks. In sorting a bale of Merino, or any other 

 quality of locks, the sorter first shakes them up thoroughly, so 

 that they will run over the table easily. He must pick any 

 combing wool out of them, that is, pieces that have fallen into 

 the locks, and any long staples. The small pieces must be well 

 shaken to remove all the locks which usually adhere to them. 

 These combing pieces are thrown in a basket together and sorted 



