20 



BULLETIN 206, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Navajo wool is very uneven. It conies to market untied, the low 

 quarter-blood mixed with the fine grade. 



Bakotas, Kansas, and Nebraska. — The wool from the Dakotas, 

 western Kansas, and Nebraska are sometimes included in the territory 

 wools. They are really midway between the " bright" and the terri- 

 tory in condition, having more sand and dirt than the bright but not 

 as much as the territory. The term " semibrights " is sometimes 

 applied to them. 



Terms used in other market reports. — The reports of the St. Louis 

 markets often refer to the shrinking qualities of the wool as light-fine, 

 heavy-fine, etc. The amount of vegetable matter present is also indi- 

 cated by burred, slightly burred, etc. Some other terms are also used 

 that are usually self-explanatory. 



FOREIGN GRADES. 



Basis of foreign classification. — The quality of English and many 

 other foreign wools is often designated by the counts or number of 

 hanks per pound. The coarser wools are represented by the lower 

 counts, as 18 7 s, 24's, 36's, etc., and the finer ones as 64's, 70's, 80's, etc. 

 These numbers or counts represent the hanks per pound of top to 

 which the wool is supposedly capable of being spun, each hank 

 representing 560 yards. Thus, wool of 50's quality should spin 

 50 X 560 yards per pound of top, if spun to the limit. This classifica- 

 tion is based on the worsted system of manufacture. 



Table 2. — Foreign wool classes and corresponding counts/or American grade. 



American grades. 



Fine 



Half-blood 



Three-eighths blood 



Quarter-blood 



Low quarter-blood 



Low, coarse, common, or braid 



Foreign classes — 



Counts often 



top-maker's 



spun to in 



quality. 



America. 



60's-70's 



50's-60's 



56's-60's 



40's 



SO's-56's 



36's 



46's-50's 



32's 



40's-46's 



20's 



36's-40's 



16's 



As a matter of fact the top-maker's quality does not actually repre- 

 sent the counts to which the wool can be spun. The lower grades will 

 not spin up to their number, while the finer ones will spin much higher 

 than their designated numbers. Some fine American wools have been 

 spun to 200 counts for exhibition purposes. Short wools will not 

 spin as high as similar wools of greater length, hence this factor also 

 influences the counts to which the wool will spin. 



Another fact worthy of mention is that the wools are rarely spun to 

 their limit, that is, to as fine a yarn as is possible to spin. Wool can be 

 spun several counts higher in England than it can in America. This 

 is due to the fact that the air is moister there and that the labor of the 



