166 
Wool and its Uses. 
Mode of Business. 
There are many points about the manner in which colonial 
wool is sent to market and dealt with, which give it an enormous 
advantage over our own. The flocks are often very large, and 
after being shorn, the wool is generally carefully and thoroughly 
skirted, i.e. the short wool growing round the neck and legs 
and down the belly of the animal is taken off, and packed into 
separate bales. The wool is also classed into different descrip- 
tions — Merino and cross-bred not being mixed in the same bales, 
except in some of the smaller flocks. The consequence is, that 
on its arrival in London, large quantities of it can be taken 
direct to the comber without any soi-ting whatever. A spinner 
can go round the warehouses and select the exact sort he 
wants: and sometimes, during the same evening, he can buy his 
lots, and have done with this branch of his business for some 
time. 
As the sales generally last from three to six weeks, and as 
there are seldom less than 10,000 bales offered every night, there 
is plenty of choice. When this style of business is compared 
with the dilatory and unbusinesslike manner of buying English 
wool from the farmer, it will be seen what an immense saving 
of time and trouble there is to the user of colonial wool as com- 
pared with the user of English. A manufacturer can, and often 
does, purchase as much wool in London in a single night as 
would take him a month to buy in Lincolnshire or Shropshire. 
Very few people, except those having actual experience, have 
any idea of the vast variety of wool which is to be bought in 
the London sales. Almost every English sort can be matched 
there, and where the object to be aimed at is fineness of texture 
and softness of handle, the London Colonial Sale is the market 
to go to. 
It will of course be asked, " What do you suggest as a remedy 
for the present unbusinesslike manner of dealing in English 
wool ? " An answer to this question brings one on to very 
delicate ground. It is much easier to point out the defects of 
the existing system than to suggest a remedy. Probably the 
first thing to be done would be to stir up the public opinion 
among wool-gi'owers to some improvement of the system as it 
exists. It would not bo diflicult to write an entertaining article 
on the present manner in which the buyer is treated by the 
grower. The affection of ignorance as regards prices, the in- 
genuity with which time is wasted, the endless bargainings, the 
objection to approach the subject in a businesslike spirit, would 
be amusing if they were not so expensive and irritating. 
In these days of competition, the manufacturer has too many 
