Wool Production 227 
about 325 million pounds of wool annually, our mills 
consume approximately 500 million pounds. This extra 
amount must be imported from some foreign country. 
Australia is the greatest wool-producing country in the 
world, yielding about three times as much as the United 
States. South America produces about twice as much as 
the United States, the larger part of which is raised in 
Argentina. 
AMERICAN MARKET CLASSES 
In order to obtain an adequate conception of the market- 
ing of wool and accurately to interpret market conditions, 
it is necessary to study the different grades and classes of 
wool. The money value of a pound of wool depends on 
the length, strength, and fineness of fiber; shrinkage 
and condition; color and character. 
Length and strength of fiber. 
The length and the strength of the fiber are associated 
together for two reasons: first, the kind of yarn which 
demands a long fiber also demands one of considerable 
strength; second, fiber lacking in strength will break in 
the process of combing, and the broken fibers must, 
therefore, class with the shorter wools. On the basis of 
length and strength, all wools are divided into two general 
classes, known as combing and clothing wool. The comb- 
ing class includes the longer wools that are manufactured 
by the combing process into worsted yarns. The clothing 
wools are the shorter ones that are manufactured without 
combing into carded woolen yarns. In the process of 
making worsted yarns the wool is combed and drawn out 
in such a way as to make the fibers lie as nearly parallel 
as possible; while in the manufacture of carded woolen 
