THE WOOLGBOWEE AND THE WOOL TBADE. 25 



Table 4. — Results of investigation of methods of western sheepmen in marketing wool. 









Number 













Number of 





who 

 sacked 



Nnmhp.r 





Number 



Number 



of cases 



where 



dockage 



was 





sheep 



Number 



ewe, 



who 



Number 



who 



State. 



shorn in 

 1913 by 



of per- 

 sons re- 



lamb, 

 and 



sacked 

 blacks 



who 

 used 



sacked 

 tags 





persons 



porting. 



buck 



. sepa- 



paper 



sepa- 





reporting. 





wool 



sepa- 

 rately. 



rately. 



twine. 



rately. 



for tags. 





134, 422 

 125, 302 

 109, 695 

 336, 249 

 518, 049 



92,011 

 195, 246 

 309, 583 



77, 419 



18 

 26 

 13 

 62 

 82 

 13 

 37 

 71 

 13 



9 



10 

 6 

 32 



46 

 6 

 25 



17 

 7 



6 

 5 

 8 

 48 

 28 

 10 

 23 

 58 



2 



8 

 8 

 49 

 44 

 3 

 34 

 61 

 11 



9 



4 



3 



45 



51 



5 



26 



24 



3 



3 





7 





4 





26 





37 









11 



Utah 



36 





4 





371, 029 



48 



32 



40 



39 



33 



13 







Total 



2, 269, 005 



383 



190 

 49.3 



226 

 59.0 



259 

 67.6 



203 



53.0 



141 













Practically one-half the correspondents separated ewes', lambs', 

 and bucks' wool when sacking; 59 per cent put up the black wool 

 separately; and 53 per cent sacked the tags separately. It must be 

 borne in mind, as stated before, that these percentages are undoubt- 

 edly much higher than would be the case if it were possible to secure 

 replies from all woolgrowers in any section or State. 



The American wool clip is sold by the growers unclassified and in 

 the main very poorly handled. The way in which each of the various 

 defects injures the manufacturing value of the wool has been explained 

 in previous pages. These defects have come to constitute a fixed 

 charge against American wool, which does not apply to wools coming 

 to this country from Australia and some other countries. 



Probably the lack of any form of classifying or grading before selling 

 causes the greatest loss to our woolgrowers. The buyer, whether he 

 represents a mill or a firm that buys wool to be sold again after grad- 

 ing, is expected to place a fair valuation upon clips in which there 

 may be many sacks each contaming three- or four grades of wool. 

 The difference in the scoured values of those grades may not be so 

 serious, but the difference in shrinkage, say, between quarter-blood 

 and half-blood fleeces, is a very great one, and there is no possibility 

 of doing more than making an estimate of the average shrinkage and 

 value of the clip as it is offered. Manifestly the buyer must place the 

 shrinkage estimate sufficiently high to protect himself from loss. In 

 order to get a certain quantity of a particular grade he must buy, 

 even of graded wools, a lot containing other grades that must be sold 

 after sorting. 



