SHEEP—-UNITED STATES, NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALIA. 29 
the wool, and delivered the bales at a charge of 12 cents per sheep, 
incurring the risk of loss through having to pay wages to shed hands 
when sheep were too wet for shearing. 
SELLING GRADED OR CLASSED WOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The terms “grading” and “classing” have of late come to have 
distinctive meanings. Grading wool is understood to consist of 
assigning whole fleeces to different lots according to length and 
fineness of fiber. Classing is understood to comprise all that grading 
does, but in addition each fleece is skirted. Fleeces that would go 
into one grade may, in classing, be made into two or more lots, ac- 
cording to shrinkage, strength, or character. Classing is an elabora- 
tion of the principle of grading. It effects a greater uniformity 
and allows a closer appraisal for each lot of wool. It also entails 
more labor, and when carried too far, especially with small clips, 
produces a larger number of small lots than is desirable. 
There can be no doubt of the desirability from the wool grower’s 
standpoint of having his wool clip sold in as many separate parts as 
are necessary to separate the main general classes of wool contained. 
How far this division, classing, or grading of a clip should be carried 
depends upon the amount and kinds of wools it contains and upon 
the selling arrangements. 
After many years of classing his clip, the Australian is firmly con- 
vinced that he realizes more for his wool by selling it in such num- 
ber of distinct lots that a manufacturer can find in a single lot just 
the kind of wool he needs for a particular fabric and can buy that 
wool alone without having to include in his purchase some wool that 
he does not want at all or that he can not use for some time. 
It seems a reasonable principle that live stock, wool, or any com- 
- modity offered in large numbers or amounts will market to better 
advantage to the seller when broken up into as many distinct lots as 
the offering includes and each sold on its merits. Good lambs or 
good wools look and sell much better in a lot by themselves than 
when mixed with inferior and unattractive stuff. Poor lambs or 
poor wools look and sell much better by themselves than when mixed 
with those of higher quality and value. 
Aside from added returns from wool and of even greater im- 
portance to the grower is the information that such a system furnishes 
regarding the proportions of each type of wool contained in his clip 
and the value of each to the manufacturing industry. This allows 
an accurate determination of the profit from various classes of sheep 
yielding peculiar types of wool. It may and often does happen that 
the heavier fleece of wool of slightly lower value per pound yields 
more profit than a lighter fleece having a higher value per pound. 
Separate sale of different classes of wool permits the sheep breeder 
