166 THE SHEEP AND WOOL INDUSTRY 



the farmers, who know the value of skins almost as well as the 

 dealer ; they do not get them for next to nothing, as many people 

 suppose. 



Some dealers buy at random. They know a full-woolled skin, 

 also a pelt, but they have very little knowledge of wool qualities, 

 or the methods of detecting dead and damaged skins, which I 

 have explained in the previous chapter. 



To be successful, a dealer must know just about what he will 

 get for a skin in town, otherwise he does not know what to pay, 

 and unless he has very good sellers to buy from, who let him 

 make a good profit, this margin protecting him, he is certain to 

 lose money on a good many of his transactions. Dampness in 

 skins is one thing that causes loss in weight. 



A dealer should thoroughly examine the skins, and if they 

 are clamp in any way, or have trotters attached, he should make 

 allowance for the moisture, and see that no trotters are cut off. 



A large number of dealers buy the skins from the farmers at 

 so much each. In buying a mixed lot of skins in this way, the 

 dealer should first class them out into small lots, such as pelts, 

 ^-wools, etc. He can then arrive at their value more easily, as 

 it is only guess-work buying a mixed lot of sheep-skins at so 

 much each without classing them out. 



In valuing, he must make an allowance for railway freights, 

 and, if selling through a broker, commission charges as well. 

 Most wool-brokers, town buyers, and shippers send price-lists 

 to their regular clients showing the returns of skins at their last 

 sale. They usually give a list showing the prices for what they 

 call J-wools, |-wools, |-wools, etc. Now a large number of 

 dealers do not know how to distinguish a }-woolled skin from 

 a pelt, as they do not know where one ends and the other 

 commences. For their benefit I will give the lengths of each 

 sort as named by the leading brokers : 



MERINO PELTS. Skins with wool in. long and under. 

 MERINO - WOOLS. Skins with wool in. to ij in. long. 

 MERINO J-WooLS. Skins with wool i in. to 2 in. long. 

 MERINO f- WOOLS. Skins with wool 2 in. to 2j in. long. 

 MERINO FULL WOOLS. Skins with wool over 2 in. in length. 



