SUPER MERINO

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 87, 6 January 1940, Page 17

SUPER MERINO

Tasmanian Wool Tasmania produces the very finest wool in the world, having a few selected, super Merino flocks. At the 1937 sales, five bales of hogget iw-00l grown iby Mr. R. G. O’Connor sold' at 463 d. a lb. —an Australian record. - Just what qualities such wool possesses have now been investigated scientifically. Tla- 'wool is of 90 to 100 count. This is so fine that were just loz. of single fibres placed! end to end, they would reach 833 miles; from Wellington to Long-burn, or Mt. Bruce. To realize the number of fibres, consider that this d'istainice is over 5,250.000 inches; the average llbte measures 23 inches in crimp and 3 1-8 -inches stretched taut, therefore there were 1,700,000 individual wool fibres in an ounce. The 46®1. i'b. wool yielded the amazingly high return of 63.6 per cent, clean weight. Two other samples yielded- 66 per cent, (from 90’s), and 69 -per cent, (from 100’s), from same breeder. The Tasmanian Merino is a distinctive breed, founded over 1'25 years, by liberal importation of the best sheep from the old German kingdom of Saxony. We are indebted' to Mr. Hamislw Wilson, of “Burleigh,” Bulls, for sending an extract from “The Australasian,” wherein an excellent account is -given or Australia’s Merinos and their history. Under itlhe present commandeer this wool will not reach close to that record price, for the Australian limit is 453 d, lb. on clean basis. That means 31d. in grease, for wool as here described.