WORLD'S WOOL CLIP.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20089, 19 November 1930, Page 16

WORLD'S WOOL CLIP.

nite scientific evidence to show that the chemical composition of the diet of a sheep directly affects the composition of its wool. Food and the Fleece. This does not, at first sight, seem very important. But, by means of a special technique evolved by Dr. Rimmington, it has been discovered that cystine contains all the sulphur present iii wool. .Sulphur is particularly valuable because certain qualities desired by the manufacturer, e.g., elasticity, strength, and resistance to chlorination, are closely bound up with sulphur content. (It is worth noting that the vulcanisation of rubber, a process which imparts elasticity, consists largely of the incorporation of sulphur.) The sulphur richness of the root section of the fibre was found to be a matter of season. Wool does not grow much during the loug droughts when shoe]) .are picking up a living on the scorched, dry pastures. But when the tains come the young, green herbage becomes much richer in cystine-contain-inrr proteins. The fleece grows vapidly, and is correspondingly rich in cystine. As the herbage becomes poorer, the growing fleece gradually drops its percentage of cystine and the root is therefore richer. This work links up with research in Australia and elsewhere, • and experiments are being planned to follow it up. A scheme for selecting and testing

STOCKS ON HAN I>. The preliminary estimate of woo) shorn in the United States in 1930 is 325,000,0001b, or 6 per cent, greater than the revised estimate of 309,000,0001b for 1929, according to a statement issued by the U.S.A. Department of Agriculture. ''Present indications point to a wool clip for tlie world, exclusive of Kussia and China, in 1930, not greatly different t'roii) that of last year, although a small reduction, is expected in the clip of Australia," the report states. "The carry-over of wool in five principal Southern Hemisphere countries will probably be above that of the last four seasons, although below the amount carried over from the 1921-25 season. Stocks in those countries on July Ist, 1930, were roughly 350,000,0001b, which is an increase of about 15 per cent, above those of last year. Stocks of foreign and Colonial wool in the United Kingdom on July Ist were estimated to be about 55,000,0001b greater than those of July Ist, 1929."

would be the one to which "contacts" would be prone. The recent outbreaks, it would seem to us in New Zealand, make doubly wise the precautions taken in the Dominion against the possible introduction of the disease. When there Is a reasonably lengthy immunity in Bn"lf"d from the trouble there is little doubt that the Dominion authorities will consider favourably tlie question of lifting the embargo, but until "a clean sheet can be shown in the Old Country for twelve months or so it would l 3 e courting trouble to change the present policy. is it *vorth while (o rear the freemart in heifer? asks a Canadian stock paper. When twins in cattle consist of a male and female, the female is called \ freeiuartin and generally is sterile when of breeding age. Some of these licifers will breed and because of this, inanv dairymen are inclined to take a chance. Just how great is this chance I Careful observation covering a great rumber of cases places the percentage of stcrilitv in froemartins at S7 per , ev t In rearing the heifers, therefore the dairyman has one chance in eight that lie "'i' l liave a breeder. As it costs a lot of money to feed a heifer for 20 months this seems a poor speculation. In the case of froemartins from registered stock it might pay to take a • lrince. and tho non-breeders are worth something for beeL