414 



MANAGEMENT ON RANGES IN THE WEST 



Marketing Wool. — Getting the wool to market is a task which 

 follows soon after shearing. As stated above, whenever possible, 

 shearing plants are located alongside railroads in order to avoid a 

 long haul to a shipping point, but some shearing must be done in 

 the interior, fifty miles or more from the railroad and a long haul is 

 involved in getting the wool to a place of shipment. Trains con- 

 sisting of several wagons, each loaded high with sacks of wool 

 aggregating a ton or more in weight, are formed for this purpose. 

 These trains have to go over a great deal of rough ground and it is 

 advantageous for the wagons to move in trains rather than to go 

 singly because extra teams are needed for the rough places and the 

 steep hills. When the haul is a long one, the cost is a large item, for 



Fig. 230. — Wool graded, baled and awaiting shipment from a shearing shed. 



breakdowns are not uncommon and necessarily the travelling is 

 slow (Fig. 230). 



Contracting. — Wool is sold in a number of ways in the West. 

 In some years the practice of contracting it at so much per pound 

 several weeks or months before it is removed from the sheep's back 

 is widespread. A certain amount of money is advanced on the pros- 

 pective clip, and sheepmen financially embarrassed find relief by 

 selling in this way. There is difference of opinion as to the under- 

 lying motives of the large commission firms and manufacturers who 

 buy direct from the range, when they contract wool prior to the 

 shearing season. These firms, speaking for themselves, say that 

 they buy in order to accommodate sheepmen who are badly in need 

 of money, while sheepmen and others think they buy because there 

 is a strong prospect for a marked advance in the wool market. 



Commission Houses. — Another way of handling the wool is 

 to consign it to some eastern commission house immediately after 

 the shearing. The house may sell at once or it may hold the ship- 

 ment for an indefinite period. Should the consignor desire money, 



