150 FINE WOOL SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 
at work as soon as shearing is over; and for the reason 
already stated, local agents must be principally relied 
on. A portion of these are excellent judges of wool ; 
bat where the demand is active, inexperienced ones 
are necessarily employed. To keep his agents duly 
informed, and to protect himself from their indiscre- 
tions, the principal, from time to time, sends out 
prices which are not to be exceeded. The agent 
works for a commission, and is, of course, anxious to 
make large purchases. If the competition is to be 
active, a scramble commences at shearing time. Three 
or four or half a dozen agents start out from every 
village. Relying more on the reputation of each 
flock than on a business-like inspection of the quality 
and condition of the wool, the least experienced agents 
buy most rapidly, and then rush along eager to keep 
the lead of or again repass other agents whose horses 
are smoking on the same road. The excitement in- 
creases. All “wools worth within ten or fifteen cents 
of the maximum price are dragged up within two or 
three cents of it; heavy yolkywwools are purchased 
at about the same price with clean ones ; in short, 
scarce a shadow of judgment is employed.* 
* A farmer gave me an amusing instance of this. His wool was 
just off. He stood in his barn door, and saw two agents approaching 
with “fast nags.” The first one rushed into the barn and asked the 
price of the clip, and it came within his maximum. He asked where 
the wool was, and was told it was in the dark granary. ‘Never 
mind,” said he, “I can tell just as well by feeling.” So he stepped 
into the granary, touched a few fleeces, took the farmer’s offer, jerkud 
out $25 to “ biud the bargam,” sprang into his sulky and was off in a 
whirlwind of speed. What the seller thought remarkable was, that 
he eould jeel wool so well through his black kid gloves which he for- 
got to take off while in the barn! And he had never handled the 
wool before. 
