THE WOOLGKOWER AND THE WOOL TRADE. 25 
Tablk 4.- -Results of investigation of methods of ivestern sheepmen in marketing wool. 
Number 
Number of 
who 
sacked 
Number 
Number 
Number 
of cases 
where 
dockage 
was 
made 
for tags. 
sheep 
Number 
ewe, 
who 
Number 
who 
State. 
shorn in 
of per- 
lamb, 
sacked 
who 
sacked 
1913 by 
sons re- 
and 
blacks 
used 
tags 
persons 
porting. 
buck 
sepa- 
paper 
sepa- 
reporting. 
wool 
sepa- 
rately. 
twine. 
rately. 
rately. 
134, 422 
125, 302 
IS 
26 
9 
10 
6 
5 
2 
8 
9 
4 
3 
California 
7 
109, 695 
336, 249 
518, 049 
13 
62 
82 
6 
32 
46 
8 
48 
28 
8 
49 
44 
3 
45 
51 
4 
26 
Montana 
37 
92 Oil 
13 
6 
10 
3 
5 
195, 246 
309, 583 
77,419 
37 
25 
23 
34 
26 
11 
Utah 
71 
13 
17 
7 
58 
61 
11 
24 
3 
36 
4 
371,029 
48 
32 
40 
39 
33 
13 
Total 
2, 269, 005 
383 
190 
49.3 
226 
59.0 
259 
67.6 
203 
53.0 
141 
Practically one-half the correspondents separated ewes', lambs', 
and bucks' wool when sacking; 59 per cent put up the black wool 
separately; and 53 per cent sacked the tags separately. It must be 
borne in mind, as stated before, that these percentages are undoubt- 
edly much higher than would be the case if it were possible to secure 
replies from all woolgrowers in any section or State. 
The American wool clip is sold by the growers unclassified and in 
the main very poorly handled. The way in which each of the various 
defects injures the manufacturing value of the wool has been explained 
in previous pages. These defects have come to constitute a fixed 
charge against American wool, which does not apply to wools coming 
to this country from Australia and some other countries. 
Probably the lack of any form of classifying or grading before selling 
causes the greatest loss to our woolgrowers. The buyer, whether he 
represents a mill or a firm that buys wool to be sold again after grad- 
ing, is expected to place a fair valuation upon clips in which there 
may be many sacks each containing three or four grades of wool. 
The difference in the scoured values of those grades may not be so 
serious, but the difference in shrinkage, say, between quarter-blood 
and half-blood fleeces, is a very great one, and there is no possibility 
of doing more than making an estimate of the average shrinkage and 
value of the clip as it is offered. Manifestly the buyer must place the 
shrinkage estimate sufficiently high to protect himself from loss. In 
order to get a certain quantity of a particular grade he must buy, 
even of graded wools, a lot containing other grades that must be sold 
after sorting. 
