90 THE SHEEP AND WOOL INDUSTRY 



Geelong, and Melbourne, to see some of the well-known Victorian, 

 New South Wales, and Queensland clips on show to realize what 

 a state of perfection wool-classing has been brought to. A capable 

 classer should be given an absolutely free hand, and have complete 

 control of the wool from the time it leaves the sheep till it is baled 

 up. He should also be given as many shed hands as he desires. 

 I have seen some pastoralists work their shed underhanded, and 

 at the finish of shearing say to the classer, " Well, you got through 

 with that number of men all right." No doubt a classer can get 

 through, but had he employed the extra men required he would 

 have had the wool skirted better and his low sorts got up and 

 attended to in a proper manner. I will quote an incident which 

 occurred in a Victorian Western District shed, where I was 

 employed as wool-classer. There were twelve shearers and we 

 could only get two wool-rollers, owing to a scarcity of labour at 

 that time. Needless to say, they could not do their work well, as 

 we were shearing about 1,200 sheep per day. The owner of the 

 place seemed pleased that we had got through, as he said we 

 saved two men's wages. I examined the wool at the sale show- 

 room and saw, as I expected, britch ends and cotted neck pieces 

 left on the fleece wool. Knowing the broker's wool valuer, I 

 asked him what it would take off the value. He replied, " About 

 ^d. a Ib." Now this pastoralist had about 270 bales of fleece, so 

 he would lose about 123. per bale, his total loss amounting to 

 about ^162. The two extra men which would have been sufficient 

 to have skirted the wool in a proper manner would cost about 

 ^22, so you can see it pays to employ the necessary amount of 

 labour to ensure your wool being well skirted and got up in a 

 proper manner. When engaging men for shed-work, every effort 

 should be made to employ only capable men. To make sure of 

 getting good men it is necessary to engage them beforehand, as it 

 is sometimes difficult to obtain a good team when you select them 

 from the men who gather at a shed at the commencement of 

 shearing. The wool-classer can generally procure good wool- 

 rollers, piece-pickers, etc., and I think it is advisable in most cases 

 to leave the selection of these men to him. Some pastoralists pay 



