8 



Handling of British Wool. 



One of the greatest difficulties with which the British 

 farmer has to contend in competition with the foreign and 

 colonial importer is the ease with which business is done at 

 the sales in London and Liverpool. A man can go to 

 London and buy probably one or two months' supply of woo 

 in a single day, whereas he might, when buying wool in the 

 country, have to spend two or three weeks in purchasing the 

 same quantity. 



At Liverpool, for example, the last sale of River Plate 

 wool amounted to 5,600 bales, most of which was the pro- 

 duce of flocks of pure English blood, or, at all events, tne 

 predominant feature was English blood. For the benefit of 

 agriculturists it may be noted that this quantity is equal to 

 more than 20,000 packs of English wool. It was classed into 

 a variety of qualities to suit particular trades, and no buyer 

 need have purchased a bale of wool of a kind which he did 

 not want. The bulk was without strings and without straw, 

 and was well skirted — that is to say, all low locks and dirty 

 pieces were pulled off and packed into separate bales, which 

 were offered separately in the auction. 



This River Plate wool is bound to become a more active 

 competitor with English wool every year, as will be under- 

 stood from the fact that Argentina until recently bought 

 from England every year from 4,000 to 7,000 stud sheep 

 at a cost of ^60,000 to ^100,000. It is not easy to say what 

 is the best means of enabling British trade to compete with the 

 facilities offered for dealing in imported wool. It seems that 

 our clips in England are not of a sufficient size to permit of sort- 

 ing, but something might be done in order to save the time of the 

 buyer in collecting sufficient for his requirements. In the 

 South of England and also in Scotland a great deal of the wool 

 is sold by auction, but in most parts of the country the trade 

 is done by the old-fashioned method of bargaining, which 

 seems more appropriate to dealing in horses than to dealing 

 in a large commercial product. Something might be done 

 by villages, districts, or counties combining together to hold 

 a sale upon a certain fixed date, in which the seller would 

 make up his mind either not to show his wool or to take the 

 market price of the day, which it may be said that he 



