WOOL-CLASSING 95 



Colour is also another very important point in wool-classing, 

 though very often condition and colour go together. Brightest 

 fleeces are generally the lightest in condition, and when you get 

 an exceptionally heavy fleece it is in most cases a yellow or canary 

 colour, which in the trade is called " dingy," though you can get 

 white fleeces that are very heavy-conditioned. Rams' wool is 

 often very white, but it is usually very heavy. In most shearing 

 sheds you will get "dingy wool"; some places have very little of 

 it, \vhile others have a great deal. This class of wool should be 

 kept by itself, and not put with the whiter and brighter wool. 

 There are several varieties of discoloured wools, the chief causes 

 being excess of yolk, tick, and fern stains, also charcoaly wool off 

 burnt and scrubby country. A fleece containing an excess of yolk 

 is yellowish in colour and very heavy, though it will generally 

 scour perfectly white. Tick stains on wool are caused by the 

 parasite of that name. These stains, if bad, will not scour out. 

 Ticky wool is very dirty and of a dull colour, inclined to be dingy, 

 and usually possessing a tender and very thin staple ; it also has 

 a very offensive smell, and the tick eggs can be seen all through 

 the wool. They resemble large grape-nuts, and are dark in 

 colour. Dipping the sheep is one of the best means of doing 

 away with this pest. Fern stains are generally found on sheep 

 which have been grazing on bracken fern country. The stain 

 is generally in the wool on the back of the sheep, and very 

 much resembles iron-rust. Though it is called fern stain, I think 

 it is got through the sheep sheltering under certain trees during 

 rain, and this gummy stain drips on to them from the branches 

 of the wet tree. Charcoal is another stain ; wool stained by this 

 is very black-looking and in classing it should be kept separate 

 from the wool off clean country. Charcoal makes the wool very 

 soft and " kind " to the touch. It is generally very light-condi- 

 tioned wool, and is often bought by the Americans on this 

 account. It is nearly always free from burr. Charcoal-stained 

 wool will not scour perfectly white, but retains a bluish tinge. 



Black and grey wool should never be mixed in any way with 

 white, and when a black or grey-woolled sheep is being shorn the 



