296 



Preparation of Wool for Market. [aug., 



and observes that there cannot be any possible excuse for any 

 sheep farmer to roll into his fleeces heavy bellies and britch 

 without the draggings or " muck lumps " being removed. This 

 has to be clipped off, while even if the wool comes to be scoured 

 all this extraneous matter will go down the drain. It must ever 

 be borne in mind that every wool buyer acts upon the adage 

 ^' once bitten, twice shy." If a buyer purchases a clip of wool 

 and the same turns out to have been badly handled, that 

 farmer's next clip will be ear-marked, and the buyer w^ill make 

 a serious attempt to get back out of the farmer the loss he 

 encountered in the previous year. Nothing shakes a buyer's 

 confidence so much in any clip as to be deceived in the " clean 

 yield " which he estimates the wool will give, and " lost confi- 

 dence " is a serious matter for any clip of wool no matter where 

 grown. 



Mr. Rollings recommends that the shearing should be done 

 on a clean-swept floor, and not under any circumstances on a 

 "bed of straw. A clean floor will prevent vegetable matter from 

 becoming entangled with the wool, and the whole fleece should 

 be carefully gathered up before the shearer commences to shear 

 the next sheep. Wool containing loose hemp, string, straw, 

 short fluffy bits from the inside of tares, means much extra cost 

 in manipulation, while owing to vegetable matter not taking the 

 dye like wool, serious loss is caused through spoiled pieces. In 

 English wools the worst feature is straw. After washing, sheep 

 should never be turned into straw before shearing, while even in' 

 the turnip field straw should not be spread unless the land is 

 very heavy and wet. The worst feature of all, namely, the 

 tying up of fleeces with loose, fluffy jute twine, has nearly dis- 

 appeared, though the practice is still continued in Somerset and 

 Devon.* 



While growers persist in roiling into their fleeces everything 

 that has been picked up while the wool is growing, no surprise 

 need be felt at the " gingerly " way in which such wools sell. 

 In a quiet time and when prices are low a buyer favours most 

 that man's wool which he knows by past experience has been 

 properly skirted and locked, while if he handles a doubtful clip 

 he allows a sufficient margin to compensate him for any unex- 



* See Leaflet 82, on the " Preparation of Wool for Market." 



