SHEEP UNITED STATES, NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALIA. 29 



the wool, and delivered the bales at a charge of 12 cents per sheep, 

 incurring the risk of loss through having to pay wages to shed hands 

 when sheep were too wet for shearing. 



SELLING GRADED OR CLASSED WOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES. 



The terms " grading " and " classing " have of late come to have 

 distinctive meanings. Grading wool is understood to consist of 

 assigning whole fleeces to different lots according to length and 

 fineness of fiber. Classing is understood to comprise all that grading 

 does, but in addition each fleece is skirted. Fleeces that would go 

 into one grade may, in classing, be made into two or more lots, ac- 

 cording to shrinkage, strength, or character. Classing is an elabora- 

 tion of the principle of grading. It effects a greater uniformity 

 and allows a closer appraisal for each lot of wool. It also entails 

 more labor, and when carried too far, especially with small clips, 

 produces a larger number of small lots than is desirable. 



There can be no doubt of the desirability from the wool grower's 

 standpoint of having his wool clip sold in as many separate parts as 

 are necessary to separate the main general classes of wool contained. 

 How far this division, classing, or grading of a clip should be carried 

 depends upon the amount and kinds of wools it contains and upon 

 the selling arrangements. 



After many years of classing his clip, the Australian is firmly con- 

 vinced that he realizes more for his wool by selling it in such num- 

 ber of distinct lots that a manufacturer can find in a single lot just 

 the kind of wool he needs for a particular fabric and can buy that 

 wool alone without having to include in his purchase some wool that 

 he does not want at all or that he can not use for some time. 



It seems a reasonable principle that live stock, wool, or any com- 

 modity offered in large numbers or amounts will market to better 

 advantage to the seller when broken up into as many distinct lots as 

 the offering includes and each sold on its merits. Good lambs or 

 good wools look and sell much better in a lot by themselves than 

 when mixed with inferior and unattractive stuff. Poor lambs or 

 poor wools look and sell much better by themselves than when mixed 

 with those of higher quality and value. 



Aide from added returns from wool and of even greater im- 

 portance to the grower is the information that such a system furnishes 

 regarding the proportions of each type of wool contained in his clip 

 and the value of each to the manufacturing industry. This allows 

 an accurate determination of the profit from various classes of sheep 

 yielding peculiar types of wool. It may and often does happen that 

 the heavier fleece of wool of slightly lower value per pound yields 

 more profit, than :■ lighter fleece having m higher value per pound. 

 Separate sale of different classes of wool permits the sheep breeder 



