THE WQOLGROWEB AND THE wool. TRADE. 9 
corkscrew shape and can not be separated in carding. Such wools 
may be run through a bur picker, which, together with the bur guards 
on the card, removes them. In the shorter extremely burry wools 
the process of carbonizing is practiced. This consists of treating with 
sulphuric acid or aluminum chlorid and heating to about 200° F. 
The burs and vegetable matter are charred and then removed by 
crushing and dusting. The process costs from 1-J to 3 cents a pound 
and results in an average loss of about 10 per cent in weight. Often 
the shrinkage due to burs is much more than this. Combing wools 
that are extremely burry are rarely if ever carbonized, as this injures 
the wool to a certain extent, even under the most favorable 
circumstances. 
IMPROPER TYING OF FLEECES. 
The evil of tying the fleeces with sisal twine is constantly recurring. 
Volumes have been written against this curse of the wool trade, but 
it is continually coming up again, although of late years it has not been 
so uniformly common. The "fleece" or farm wools are worse in this 
respect that the " Territory." A discrimination in price of from 1 to 5 
cents a pound and the refusal of some dealers to handle wool thus put 
up have not eliminated this practice. The pieces of sisal twine adhere 
to the wool through the processes of manufacture and seriously injure 
the finished fabric. The large rough jute twine is also undesirable 
because of the fibers coming off in the fleeces. Growers should insist 
on having the fleeces in compact bundles that will not open in the 
ordinary processes of packing. 
Locks. — Locks are loose pieces of wool that fall out when the fleeces 
are handled. They may represent some of the best qualities of the 
w T ool, but because of their being in small pieces they are difficult to 
sort, hence the buyers object to them when they are present in large 
quantities. Their presence can be avoided by proper tying. 
PACKING THE BUCK FLEECES. 
Probably the average sheepman can see no reason for keeping the 
bucks' fleeces separate; nevertheless there is one. These fleeces, 
especially among the fine and medium wooled sheep, are considerably 
heavier in grease, and it is undesirable to have too great a variation 
in shrinkage among fleeces of one grade. The buck fleeces are as a 
rule easy to detect; they are large, have a strong, musky odor, and 
the yolk of the fleece has a greenish cast. The statement has been 
made that the spinning qualities of bucks' fleeces are also lower, but 
there are no good grounds for this contention. A discount of 50 per 
cent is often charged against the buck fleeces in western selling con- 
tracts. Discrimination to this extent is seldom warranted for buck 
fleeces sold in the grease. 
83237°— Bull. 206—15 2 
