WOOL-CLASSING 91 



. the expenses of good wool-rollers and table hands from the city to 

 the shed. I think it pays to do this, as one good smart wool-roller 

 will do as much work, and do it better than two of the indifferent 

 sort. Some manufacturers have no plant for removing burr and 

 vegetable matter from wool, and consequently they do not 

 purchase this wool. That is one reason why pieces should be 

 picked or sorted in the shearing shed, as in skirting off the faulty 

 wool from a fleece, you very often have to take off a little good 

 free wool with it, especially on the neck skirts. The piece-pickers 

 usually sort the skirts into three sorts namely, firsts, seconds, and 

 stains ; the firsts consisting of all the bulky pieces free from burr ; 

 the second pieces being shorter, and having fribby ed^es, which 

 are the extreme edges of the fleece. Stains would consist of urine- 

 stained wool from the britch of the sheep. In some cases where 

 the pieces are all burry, the firsts will consist of all the big, bulky, 

 and light burry pieces free from all fribby edges, the seconds 

 consisting of heavy burry and fribby edges. The fleece is skirted 

 in order to remove all faulty wool, such as stained britch wool and 

 the dirty pieces about the edges of the fleece, also any containing 

 burr which does not run very deep into the fleece. In some cases 

 if you attempted to skirt all the burry wool off the fleece, you 

 would have hardly any free wool left, so in these circumstances it 

 is advisable to remove only the heavy burry edges. The American 

 buyers seldom purchase fleece wool having burry skirts left on, and 

 if a grower had very good wool, it would pay him to skirt all the 

 burry wool off his fleece, as the American competition will raise the 

 value from 2d. to 4d. per Ib. 



The chief things to remember in classing wool are 



1. Condition. 



2. Quality. 



3. Strength and length of staple. 



4. Colour. 



Condition means the quantity of yolk and earthy matters which 

 the fleece contains. Merino wools are chiefly classed on condition. 

 Classing on condition means putting the fleece into three or any 



