12 BULLETIN 206, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
board is not enough to give one an insight into the complexity of a 
trade that requires at least three years' apprenticeship. Days and 
even weeks must be spent there before the importance and signifi- 
cance of numerous points that arise can be appreciated. 
The grade has much to do with fixing the price of wool, and every 
woolgrower should be competent to know how his own wool will 
grade in the market. The various grades are described later on in 
connection with the market report following the outline of the work 
of the grader. Some clips of finer wools, very uniform in character, 
are resold to the manufacturer in the original bags. This is practi- 
cable when the mill produces a variety of fabrics for which different 
grades of wool are required. (Plate VI.) 
AT THE GRADING TABLE. 
About the grading table or board are a number of large baskets or 
box trucks, one for each grade. The wool sacks are rolled up by 
the table, the ends and one side ripped or cut down, depending upon 
the kind of sewing, and the fleeces turned out in a roll. The fleeces 
are separated by helpers, who throw them upon the table. Other 
helpers bring up the bags and empty the baskets containing the 
graded fleeces, piling them ceiling high where the wool can be ex- 
amined by the prospective buyers. 
The different grades are merely arbitrary divisions more or less 
clearly recognized and defined in trade. There is some variation from 
year to year and among the different houses. The mills often have a 
higher standard of qualities than the dealers, and the "half-blood" 
of the dealer may represent the millman's idea of a "three-eighths 
blood." Fineness is the dominant factor; but many other things are 
considered in grading. 
The grader does not determine fineness, as might be supposed by 
examination of individual fibers. The handling of innumerable fleeces 
has given him an intuitive sense of quality, so that he accomplishes 
in an instant what would take an untrained person a much longer 
time. For example, say that a half-blood combing fleece has been 
thrown upon the board. This grade has in general certain charac- 
teristics, such as a certain degree of crimp (the finer the crimp the 
finer the wool, except in very fine wool), and a certain arrangement 
of the fibers in locks or staples that the grader notes as soon as his 
eye rests upon it. This gives him something as a guide, but the grade 
is not yet decided. When his hands come in contact with the fleece 
he has another source of information. The feel of the different grades 
is more or less characteristic, and this sense is highly developed in the 
grader. Illustrating this, a blind buyer formerly operated upon the 
market with considerable success. He could not only make pur- 
chases and distinguish the grade by the touch, but by the odor he 
