CORRESPONDENCE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XL, Issue 9292, 29 April 1920, Page 7

CORRESPONDENCE.

WOOL INDUSTRY

(To the Editor. "Guardian.") Sir,—Because of the soaring prices of fine wool and the corresponding depression in crossbreds, we have lately seen very snirited bidding for half-' breds, buyers anticipating a still further rise in this class of wool, the popular belief being that medium and coarse wool will not be eagerly sought for until world conditions regain normal.

As so many in this County are grazing crossbrecis. the following excerpts culled from the "Export Mail," a paper of standing in the Midlands textile trade, may he of some interest: — "Forty per cent.-of the wool supplies from Australasia were already crossbred in the wool season 1916-17; and, if the truth were forthcoming, we might now find the proportion nearly 50 per cent., and no check in sisjht to that tendency. The same policy is. being pursued in Argentine, where 50 per cent, of the sheep, are already said to be crossbred. We can no longer ignore the fact that our fine wool supplies are being revolutionised. Yet the said revolution is bringing more grist, although,the wool and fine quality are secondary considerations. But the question is now being forced upon us, 'What are wo' to do with this - : surfeit of crossbred wool when the majority of our carding machines are adapted to fine merino wool ?'

"If you desire to turn it easily to good account brine; it within the scope and capacity of your machinery, when it can be worked as freely as merino without producing noils, or more than 1 per cent, of waste, as proved by the practical men in the textile department of the Leeds University. The new textile process lias solved the great crossbred problem, by bringing the long fibres within the scope of* all woollen machinery—home, foreign, and colonial.. Thus at one bound ' Textcr ' —the invention —has opened an en< rmous and wide field for enterprise, n the manufacture- of colonial crossbi 'i into useful fabrics by removing .. 5 great obstacle, viz., length of fibre. As a matter of fact, when the longest crossbred fibres are reduced in length to an equivalent with those of merino wool, all diinulties in their manufacture disappear. . . v. '' Previous to the- mention of the new textile process which shortens the long fibres of crossbred wool to the. length of merino wool, their length' was a great obstacle to their manufacture in woollen mills. The new process brings the long fibres within the scope of all the woollen mills in the world, without displacing any machinery, old or new. The scope of textiles is increased a thousandfold, and their manipulation in manufacture becomes as easy as the merino wool." My reason for invading your columns, sir, is the interest I feel the above will be to thousands of crossbred woolgrowers throughout the country and to those who have latterly been • scrambling for fin*; wool sheep at any cost. DOUGLAS CRESSWELL. Lismore.