THE ARGENTINE WOOL CLIP.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9988, 18 March 1898, Page 2

THE ARGENTINE WOOL CLIP.

The Bueno3 Avres correspondent of the Review writing under date December 4th says :—" The price, quantity, and quality of the new clip have bsen the chief topics of conversation daring this last month, and everyone is disappointed. Prices are lower than anyone expected them to be, especially for coarse qualities, for which, indeed, "there is little or no demand and most unexpectedly unremunerative prices. The wool from Messrs Gebbie's estancia, near Rancho3, which two years ago topped the market as being first-clas3 Lincoln at Sls per 10 kilos, has this year only realised §8; and this is some of the finest Lincoln wool to be found in the province of Buenos Ayres. The quality of wool sent into the market this year is, on the whole, better than last, the condition is worse owing to want of rain and the consequent quantity of sand as well as the poor condition of the sheep during the greater part of the year. The quantity is reckoned by experts to be about 18% less than last. There is no demand for coarse wool, very little for crossed Lincoln, end none at all anything not specially good. In fact, there is a stagnation in wool such as no one has ever seen before. The French buyers are practically alone in the market, the Germans are doing little or nothing, and as the bulk of the arrivals is always of the coarse class the pile of unsold keeps on accumulating. Thus, in spite of having started the season almost free from any remnant of last year's clip, the stock is now enormous, while sales in the camp compare badly with last year. We started the 1896 clip with a big surplus from that of 1895, this year we have started with almost a clean floor; last year wool was contracted on most of the important estancias long before shearing, but this has only happened in one or two isolated instances this year. Sheepfarmers are very down on their luck, for last year we lost thousands through lung worm and other diseases ; this year, though Jα other respects there has been great cause for grumbling, there is a woeful lack of purchasers. It has been impossible tor mc to give you information in any of my former letters as to the outlook of the clip, for I could only have told you then what everybody knows, that we have any quantity" of wool. But when at the commencement of shearing there were hardly any buyers, farmers smiled and said : " Oh, they'll come all right a bit later, it's only a ruse on their part," but, sad to Bay, they did begin to drop in in a desultory sort of way, but the limit they had from the Home firms was so infamously low that many producers have refused to sell. And this is not all, but the I long, coarse Lincoln, which everybody has been breeding for the last seven or eight years is least in demand of an}*. The question as to what class of sheep to breed is a serious one, and it is now asked by many— ,. What are we to breed for, wool or wethers?" The latter always command a good price, whether for export alive or frozen, and even for consumption in Buenos Ayrea a 45-kilo wether (live will always command, if in good condition, a minimum price of 7s 6d. Wool has, so far, always been the first consideration among our sheep farmers, but in view of the present condition of the wool market it will not surprise many of us to see the Linsoln giving place to the black face, and wool coming in .second to mutton. Such is the outlook of our clip, and not a flattering one. There are 27,000 tons deposited in- the Central Market deposit;' and the manager has advertised in the papers that he can receive no more for want of space. It will then have to remain on the estancias until such time as some of the present stock can be sold off. But as there is little demand, and sales are limited to a few tons per day, quiqn sabe when will this be?"