THE W00LGR0WER AXD THE WOOL TRADE. 9 



corkscrew shape and can not be separated in carding. Such wools 

 may be run through a bur picker, which, together with the bur guards 

 on the card, removes them. In the shorter extremely burry wools 

 the process of carbonizing is practiced. This consists of treating with 

 sulphuric acid or aluminum chlorid and heating to about 200° F. 

 The burs and vegetable matter are charred and then removed by 

 crushing and dusting. The process costs from 1|- to 3 cents a pound 

 and results in an average loss of about 10 per cent in weight. Often 

 the shrinkage due to burs is much more than this. Combing wools 

 that are extremely burry are rarely if ever carbonized, as this injures 

 the wool to a certain extent, even under the most favorable 

 circumstances. 



IMPROPER TYING OF FLEECES. 



The evil of tying the fleeces with sisal twine is constantly recurring. 

 Volumes have been written against this curse of the wool trade, but 

 it is continually coming up again, although of late years it has not been 

 so uniformly common. The "fleece" or farm wools are worse in this 

 respect that the "Territory." A discrimination in price of from 1 to 5 

 cents a pound and the refusal of some dealers to handle wool thus put 

 up have not eliminated this practice. The pieces of sisal twine adhere 

 to the wool through the processes of manufacture and seriously injure 

 the finished fabric. The large rough jute twine is also undesirable 

 because of the fibers coming off in the fleeces. Growers should insist 

 on having the fleeces in compact bundles that will not open in the 

 ordinary processes of packing. 



Locks. — Locks are loose pieces of wool that fall out when the fleeces 

 are handled. They may represent some of the best qualities of the 

 wool, but because of their being in small pieces they are difficult to 

 sort, hence the buyers object to them when they are present in large 

 quantities. Their presence can be avoided by proper tying. 



PACKING THE BUCK FLEECES. 



Probably the average sheepman can see no reason for keeping the 

 bucks' fleeces separate; nevertheless there is one. These fleeces, 

 especially among the fine and medium wooled sheep, are considerably 

 heavier in grease, and it is undesirable to have too great a variation 

 in shrinkage among fleeces of one grade. The buck fleeces are as a 

 rule easy to detect; they are large, have a strong, musky odor, and 

 the yolk of the fleece has a greenish cast. The statement has been 

 made that the spinning qualities of bucks' fleeces are also lower, but 

 there are no good grounds for this contention. A discount of 50 per 

 cent is often charged against the buck fleeces in western selling con- 

 tracts. Discrimination to this extent is seldom warranted for buck 

 fleeces sold in the grease. 



83237°— Bull. 206—15 2 



