Types and Market Classes of Live Stock 307 



7. Wet wool. — In wet wool the fibers may be weakened, and 

 there is danger of spontaneous combustion. It may also cause staining, 

 especially when tags are present. 



8. Burs. — As has been pointed out, burs cause much trouble and 

 extra expense in manufacture, and hence lower the value of the fleece 

 considerably. 



9. Improper tying. — The fleece should be tied so that no locks 

 or pieces fall out. These are difficult to sort and buyers object to them 

 when present in large quantities. The use of sisal or binder twine is 

 seriously objected to by dealers and manufacturers because the fibers 

 of the twine shred off and become mixed with the wool and blemish 

 the fabrics made from it. A small, light twine of twisted paper, espec- 

 ially intended for the use of wool growers, is now on the market and 

 should be used exclusively. 



10. Buck fleeces. — These contain more grease than other fleeces 

 and hence shrink more in scouring. They should be kept separate. 



11. Black wool. — A black fleece packed with white ones is almost 

 certain to contaminate the latter due to some of the black fibers be- 

 coming mixed in the white. Black wool should be packed separately. 

 Black fieeces sell at a discount because they are usually not an even 

 black, but contain white, gray, and brown fibers, often more of these 

 than of black. 



12. Cotted or matted fleeces. — It is necessary to run these 

 through an opener, which is not done with ordinary wool. 



13. Hand and machine shearing. — Machine shearing results in a 

 heavier fleece, longer fibers, and freedom from second cuts. Machine 

 shearing may even result in changing the class from clothing to comb- 

 ing. 



14. Packing wool. — Lamb, ewe, and wether fleeces should be 

 packed in separate bags if possible. Lamb's wool is usually more 

 valuable because of lighter shrinkage. Sewing bags with sisal or other 

 unsuitable twine creates a bad impression. The bag should be sewed 

 securely with a stout, hard-finished twine so as not to burst open. 



Marketing wool properly. — Poor methods of sheep husbandry 

 annually result in the loss of many thousands of dollars to wool growers. 

 Neglect of flocks in winter, filthy conditions of keep, carelessness in 

 handling, weedy pastures, the use of oil paint or tar to mark sheep, 

 failure to separate the tags when the sheep are shorn, and improper 

 tying of fleeces are factors which greatly lessen the returns to wool 

 producers. The loss is large because of the presence in fleeces of seeds, 

 burs, dust, chaff, sand, manure, and other foreign material, and be- 

 cause unnecessary quantities of unreasonably large twine are used, or 

 because a kind of twine is used that injures the cloth made from the 



