WOOL RESEARCH INTO COARSE AND MEDIUM GRADES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22669, 21 June 1948, Page 6

WOOL RESEARCH INTO COARSE AND MEDIUM GRADES

(N.Z.P.A.—Reuter—Copyright.) NEW YORK, June IS. The wool industry for the first time is making a joint effort to increase the medium and coarse grades of raw wool to supplement the declining output of finer grades. A new programme to accelerate research on this subject was announced by the American Wool Council, the International Wool Secretariat and the Textile Research Institute after a meeting in New York today. The work will be conducted at Princeton, New Jersey, the headquarters of the Textile Research Institute, and the results will be passed on to the world's wool textile mills.

The International Wool Secretariat has agreed to allocate 30,000 dollars a year for four years, and it is understood that the American wool Council and other United States woolgrowing groups will provide an additional 45,000 dollars a year.

Exchange of Students

Mr. Eugene Ackerman, an executive director of the American Wool Council. said after the meeting: “By upgrading the textures which can be obtained" from all wool grades it will widen the markets for medium and coarse wools and add to their values.” posed to introduce exchange feilowAs part of the programme, it is proships under which a number of Princeton graduates will study in England and the British wool-producing Dominions, and students from those countries will study at Princeton. In the early stages of research, samples of a wide range of domestic and Dominion fine and medium wools from sheep of known breeding, diet and general history will be used. Intensive experiments will be made with a limited number of “master wools,” which will be processed under carefully controlled conditions in typical American mills co-operating in the project. Another phase of the study will endeavour to prove or disprove the theory that storage for extended periods is beneficial, and to discover a more rapid means of testing the fibre. Good Future For Wool The world still greatly needed wool and the industry had a good future, said the president of the International Wool Syndicate, M. Maurice Du Brulle, when the 17th international wool conference opened at Amsterdam, says a Reuter message. M. Du Brulle added that the situation was becoming more settled. Production capacity had reached the ceiling in some countries and even surpassed it in others. Mr. F. S. Arthur, general manager of the United Kingdom and Dominions’ Wool Disposal Organisation, said that Britain and the Dominions' wool reserve would be dropped from 10,500,000 bales in August, 1945, to only 3.250,000 bales by the end of June. Mr. Arthur added that if the 1948-49 Commonwealth programme were carried out the total reserve at the end of the season would be about 2,000,000 bales.

The conference decided to appoint a special committee to design a new packing method for export wool.