Ql\}c laxnms iHoutl)lij iMciitor. 



41 



Wool Growing. 



Letter read before a lonveiilion of wool-grow- 

 ers at Steubeiiville, Ohio, Feb. 10, 1647. 

 LETTIiR FROM MR. BROWN. 



PREPARING WOOL FOR MARKET. 



Tlic best mode of preparing wool for market, 

 is as follows: Bcforo washing', remove carefully 

 with the shears all locks cunlaiitiiig dung ill a 

 hardened stale ; then wet the sheeji in every part, 

 and let them stand crowtled together lor an hour 

 or two. They should he taken out of the water 

 (when first put in for wetting,) as quickly as may 

 bo after the wool is fairly wet in order to retain 

 a soapy substance the wool contains, which acts 

 upon the dirt and gum iu the wool, while sheep 

 stand together belbie washing. This soapy sub- 

 stance is the first thing to escape, as washing is 

 commonly done. The best mode of washing is 

 to use a tail of three feet or over, turning the 

 sheep ill dift'ercnt ways under the l;dl, till tlie ac- 

 tion of the water brings every part of the fieece 

 to an almost snowy whiteness. A much less fiill 

 will answer well if the sheet of water is eight or 

 ten inches deep. If the water under the liill is 

 not deep enough to remain clear while the sheep 

 are in, a plank bottom shonhl be provided to pre- 

 vent any sand or earthy substance from getting 

 into the wool by stirring up the water. A clean 

 rock bottom is just as good. Where a fall can- 

 not be had, a clear running stream should be 

 found, and the dirt worked out perfectly from all 

 pans of the fleece, with the hands, after first 

 soaking the sheep as before. To wash sheep 

 immediately after a soaking rain, will answer very 

 well instead of welting as above. The sheep 

 when waslied, should be driven to a clean grassy 

 field, free from bare spots of earth, avoiding mud- 

 dy or du?ty roads after washing. The shearing 

 should be done as soon after wishing as the wool 

 is dry, which will be in tuo or three days. When 

 confined for shearing, the flock should be kept 

 well liltored, and the floors or tables, or whatever 

 place they may be sheared upon, shonhl be kept 

 thoroughly cleaned. The fleeces must be kept 

 whole by the shearers, or they (the shearers) are 

 wholly unfit for their business. Afterthe fleeces 

 are taken off, they should be placed on a smooth, 

 clean floor or table, with the outer ends upward, 

 niid be carefully examined all over by patting 

 with the hands to find every bur, which slionld 

 be taken out tvtlhout/ail. 'I he fleece should then 

 be rolled up snugly, and tied with a small twine. 

 If farmers would not suflfcr a bur-bearing plant 

 to live in their siglit, it would be vastly btltcrand 

 would cost l.'ut little yeai ly. Of this we speak 

 from experience. A disregard of these little 

 things, the whole cost of which is but a trifle in 

 addition to the ordinary expense of putting up 

 wool, is the greatest hindrance to the sale oi' 

 American wools in England or France, and oui' 

 farmers have generally no idea of the injury they 

 siifler by a neglect of these matters, and the 

 shameful, dishonest practice of tying up their 

 fleeces with ten and even twenty feet of small 

 rope, or with strips Qf bark two or three inches 

 wide, instead of two or three feet of small twine 

 — wrapping up coarse and unwashed uool inside 

 of some of the finest fleeces, pulling in dung- 

 balls, dirty sweepings of barn floors, doing up 

 their fleeces wet, &c., so that they often mould. 

 The laws of England are said to n:akc such things 

 a penal otfence. Would our farmers put thtir 

 wool in such a condition yearly as some now do, 

 and as a good fiirmer would be proud of iloinjj 

 with his wheat, pork, bnlti'r, &c., we should soon 

 liave enough of English and French comiiotitors 

 in our wool market, which would do much more 

 for the trade than any protective measmcs we 

 can ever hojie for. Our slovenly, disljonesl hab- 

 its, deprive tis of foreign coinpetilion, and leave 

 us entirely at the mercy of our largo manufac- 

 turing " bodies without souls." The qualities of 

 American wool are such as to overcome, in some 

 small measure, all the ilisadvantages under which 

 they must he sold in a Ibreign market, for uaiit 

 of repuiation, and small shipments of American 

 wool have been made the past season, uitli a 

 small profit to the shipper. Every ponml that we 

 can expoit, not only brings so uaich inoue-y into 

 the country, but improves the market at home. 



Some very judicious wool-dealers recommend 

 keeping out of the fleeces, the fribs or small scat- 

 tered locks, but we are on the whole ilisposed to 

 advise, that all clean locks or fribs be put within 



the fleece to which they more properly belong — 

 it appearing to us to be more properly the busi- 

 ness of the wool sorter or grader, to separate them 

 from the fleeces than of the farmer, who in many 

 instances, is under no advantages for using them, 

 or of disposing of them tor their value. We do 

 not think the remarks of English wool-brokers 

 in reference to fribs are applicable to farmers. — 

 At any rate, this has been our nniform practice, 

 and we have yet to hear the first word of com- 

 plaint about the condition of our w'^ool, in this 

 pnrticniar, either in this country or England. — 

 The wool put lip in first rate order, and stored 

 away in a clean, secure place, the next thing is 

 tor the holder to become informed in regard to 

 its value. This he may generally do through 

 some disinterested source if he will not be in too 

 great a hurry, which, by the way, is all wrong, as 

 the throwing oft'stichan immense quantity upon 

 the market at once, has the most certain ett'ect to 

 reduce the price, since money is not to be had to 

 buy all the wools of the country at once, unless 

 they are sold so low as to give the profits to oth- 

 ers than the growers. If the wool is to be sold 

 at hoi7ie, the growers need have no anxiety about 

 losing a sale, by letting it lie awhile, or by letting 

 wool-buyers go away two or three limes with- 

 out it. 



MANDFACTCRE OF PRICES AND BREAKING GROUND. 



A very common comse with wool-buyers, is to 

 make some arrangements with one or two prom- 

 inent wool-growers in a neighborhood to sell 

 their wool at a certain mark, giving them by the 

 way, for something else, or for some trifling serv- 

 ice, peibajis, ten or twenty times as much as it is 

 worth, to atone for the low price of the wool. — 

 Calculating that men are like sheep, and that if 

 one or two of the leading sheep-masters are in- 

 duced by any means to sell at a certain price, all 

 the others in a neighborhood will of course fol- 

 low. This is one machine. A largo proportion 

 of the persons employed at the Erisl, to buy the 

 fine wools of the country, have good or superior 

 flocks ihemsehes, and are iierhaps, not poorly 

 paid for selling their own wool for such [irices as 

 they offer to others. Another way of manufac- 

 turing [irices, is, when any one or more persons 

 have either, through necessity, bribery or igno- 

 rance of the (luulity and \alue of their wool, been 

 iii'luced to sell at a low figure ; to publish accounts 

 of such sales as much as possible, in order to let 

 others see how entirely above the market price 

 they hold tlieir wool. Purchasers, \\4ien describ- 

 ing the condition and ipiality of lots of wool so 

 bought, are conscientious about not giving them 

 a bad name. This machine works well. 



Another is, just about the time the new clip 

 comes in, to get up a great deal of talk and cor- 

 lespondence back and forth, questioning one an- 

 other about the probable range of prices for the 

 season, careful, at the same time, to express an 

 opinion, that prices will range so and so, compar- 

 ed with last season, in order that by telling what 

 one has said, and another has written, to get the 

 talk started on the flat key, and in that way not 

 break grotind loo higli. For this most happy ex- 

 pression (breaking ground) we are wholly indebt- 

 ed to manufacturers. This is the great engine in 

 use princi|)ally at head quarters, or Boston. 



In " breaking ground" rif^ht, the great secret is 

 in managing the wool trade. If maunfai liners 

 and wool-dealers say and write a good deal back 

 and forth about the commencement of the sea- 

 son, the word presently gels agoing among the 

 farmers, and by ibis time it will do to send out 

 some smart fellows to buy. if the ground is 

 broke right, the business of securing a heavy di- 

 vidend lor that year is in a pretty safe state. 



From all that can now be known of the Mup[)ly 

 of wo<ils in the market, and of the general pros- 

 [lerity of the manufacturing interests of the coun- 

 try, the ])lenty of money, together with the foreign 

 demand lor American wools, an advance in (iri- 

 ces of wool over the cuuniry generally may be 

 expected the coming season. 



JOHN BROWN. 



LETTER FROM MR. MORRELL. 

 Lake Ridge, Tompkins Co, N. Y., 1 

 January 21, 1847. \ 



Samuel Patterson: Dear Sir: — After your 

 depariiire from my residence, in August last, iiiv 

 reflections were cast upon the subject which oc- 

 cupied a portion of our attention whih- vnn wo.— 



here, and which were suggested and promnleale" 

 by the Convention of Wool Growers, held a' 

 Springfield, Mass., namely to ascertain liom time 

 to time, the real value of our WodI, both at home 

 and abroad, iu order that we might dispose of it 

 more intelligently, and conseqHently to better ad- 

 vantage. It is with regret I inform yon, that I 

 have not been able to collect any in'brmaiiou of 

 a definite ehaiacier, hearing upon the subject. 

 Indeed, it would have been extremely diflicnit, if 

 not impossible to do so, for the reason that to de- 

 termine the real value of our Wool, it was nec- 

 essary to know accmately the cost of manufac- 

 turing the various styles and qualities, and the 

 prices obtained tor the .^ame, in market. This is 

 a piece of iutbrmaiion manuliictiirers are quite too 

 shrewd to impart, especially to wool growers. 

 Hence, you can readily see, lor this reason, and the 

 remoteness of my residence from manuliicturing 

 establishment.s, and from the principal markets 

 for the disposal of these wares, the diflictilties 

 which beset me. 



That the really fine wools grown in the United 

 States, have been sold much below their true val- 

 ue, for a number of years past, is a well known 

 " fixed fact," and not susceptible of any doubt. 

 This is proved by the large profits, or dividends 

 declared by a nunilier of fine wool inannliicto- 

 ries, and among them, the "Middlesex Compa- 

 ny," which recently announced a dividend of 16 

 per cent., which is luobably less than the real 

 profits of the establishment, as with nearly all 

 incorporated bodies, there is a reserve bind per- 

 mitted to accumulate from year to year to cover 

 or meet the exigencies. Making due allowances 

 for the skill ami talent of the head of that estab- 

 lishment, the inference is legitimate, that the wool 

 grower has been the sufl'erer; for I well know, 

 sir, that we can declare no such dividend as that 

 above slated. But I will not waste words to show 

 lurther that the manuliictiirers, especially of fine 

 wools, have treated us badly. Is it not, however, 

 very much our own fault? Is there not some- 

 thing wrong in the manner the wool grower dis- 

 poses of wool ? Let us enquire into this. 



It has been common in this section, and I be- 

 lieve every where, for the jiroprietors of small 

 flocks to carry their wool in bhinkets to the near- 

 est market town, without previously having as- 

 certained the prices oifered for the qualities they 

 respectively grow, and then throwing themselves 

 on the tender mercies of one, two or more greedy 

 speculators, who often combine, or at all events, 

 buy at very reduced prices — buy lor twenty-five 

 cents, what in reality may be worth i?5 per cent, 

 more. The farmer, rather than return home with 

 his wool, sells it. His example is followed by an- 

 Blher and another, and liins, for a series of years 

 past, by this undue haste lo sell, a low maiket in 

 the beginning of the season has been establish- 

 ed, which is sure to operate unfavorably upon 

 the prices of all descriptions of wool, for the res- 

 idue of the year. 



It is very true, many wool growers arc compel ■ 

 led to dispose of their wool from pecuniary ne- 

 cessity, hut still the number is cumparalively 

 small, who could not borrow a little money for n 

 short period, and which would bo far wiser than 

 to make the sacrifice accompanying undue haste 

 in selling. 



\\ hen all rush simultaneously to n arket with 

 a certain product, no matter what, the market be- 

 comes more or less glinted, and on the rule of 

 supply and demand, [uices must fdl. This is a 

 fact generally well understood. 



Another mode of disposing of wool, and very 

 generally [iracticed by proprietors of large flocks, 

 is to " bide their time," and wait lor the coming 

 of itinerant agents of ni.inuficturers end sficcu- 

 lators. These are a class of men very properly 

 designated '• wool sharks," and there are fi;w of 

 lis who have not felt ilieir Ihiigs. They are sent 

 forth with orders to buy as cheap as they can- 

 to buy wool worth fifty cents per pound lor thir- 

 ty, if possible : in no instance to exceed a (Certain 

 limit, &c. Their hiimbng stories lo practice up- 

 on the credulous, are cut from whole clnlh: if 

 one kind of stuffing will not suit, ilie'r ready in- 

 genuity suggests another. Indeed a detail of their 

 arts and language used to "come it over us," 

 would form a highly amusing chapter. Let us not 

 waste further words upon tiieiii, but keep out of 

 their way if we can. 



There is yet another wav of di=rio£.;.. ^ "•"— -mjh 



