WOOL. 193 



" 14. No person shall prepare or partake of food in a place specified in Rule 6 or 

 in a carding-room, or bring any food into such room. 



" 15. No person employed in any place specified in Rule 6 shall leave the works 

 or partake of meals without previously washing his or her hands. 



"16. If the fan or any other appliance necessary for the carrying out of these 

 rules is out of order, any workman becoming aware of the defect shall immediately 

 report the fact to the foreman. 



"17. No alpaca, Pelitan, Cashmere, Persian, or camel hair shall be opened 

 otherwise than as permitted by Rule 1. 



"No badly-damaged wool or hair, fallen fleeces, or skins, wool or hair of the 

 kinds named in Rule 1 shall be opened otherwise than as permitted by Rule 2. 



" No bale of Van mohair shall be opened otherwise than as permitted by Rule 3. 



" No alpaca, Pelitan, Cashmere, Persian, camel hair or mohair shall be willowed 

 except as permitted by Rule 4. 



" Factory Department, Home Office, February 1900." 



Merino and Australian Wools. These are from the Merino breed 

 of sheep, which was first introduced into Sydney, and improved under 

 the influence of the splendid climate and pastures of Victoria, Queens- 

 land, New Zealand, and Tasmania. 



The merino wool is exceedingly soft and full in staple, and of a good 

 colour. Port Phillip, Sydney, and Adelaide are the three principal kinds 

 of staples that were introduced into the wool market from Australia. 



These wools are used for either woollen or worsted goods, according to 

 their character, quality, and length of staple. Mr. Charles Vickernmn, in 

 his work on Woollen Spinning, deals with colonial wools as follows : 

 " There are many points about the manner in which colonial wool is sent 

 to market and dealt with which give it an enormous advantage over our 

 own. The flocks are often very large, and after being shorn, the wool is 

 generally carefully and thoroughly skirted, i.e., the short wool growing 

 round the neck and legs and down the belly of the animal is taken off 

 and packed into separate bales. 



"The wool is also classed into different descriptions, merino and 

 cross-bred not being mixed in the same bales, except in some of the 

 smaller flocks. The consequence is that on its arrival in London large 

 quantities can be taken direct to the comber without any sorting what- 

 ever, and the same thing is often done in the fancy woollen trade. A 

 spinner or manufacturer can go round the warehouses and select the 

 exact sort he wants ; and sometimes during one evening he can buy his 

 lots and have done with this branch of his business for some time. As 

 the London wool sales generally last from three to six weeks, and as there 

 are seldom less than 10,000 bales offered every night, there is plenty of 

 choice. When this style of business is compared with the dilatory and 

 unbusin ess-like manner of buying English wool from the farmer, it will 

 be seen what an immense saving of time and trouble there is to the user 



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