WOOL-WASHING.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 157, 13 February 1869, Page 5

WOOL-WASHING.

Already the fall in the wool market at Home is producing a valuable and beneficial effect on the character of the staple commodity of the New Zealand wool-grower, and that which has been viewed with alarm, as a calamity threatening the collapse of all sheep-farming enterprise, gives promise of being the forerunner of a lasting good. Repeatedly in these columns have we sought to draw attention to the fact that competition in the wool markets of England can only be successful by the production of a superior article ; that the great increase of wotugrowing in these colonies, and in other parts of the world, together with the cessation of the abnormal demand for wool during the dearth of cotton, caused by the continuance of the American war, had greatly changed the value of wool, and the condition of the wool-°rower as he existed in New Zealand a dozen years a<m. True, a profitable demand for wool and for sheep was maintained much longer than even sanguine people expected ; and hence what has since proved to be unwise prices were paid for land ; and mistaken and extrema rates for “ sheep on terms” were entered upon, in erroneous anticipation that the good times would last. The high price and large profits that continued for a season were the products in most cases of'what must be termed slovenly sheep-farming, and the money being so easily made, under easy-going and careless management, had the effect of inducing more and more land purchases at extravagant terms, because of the interest which had to be paid for the borrowed money employed in the purchase. “ Increase the acreage, add valley to valley, and hill to hill,” was the motto ; and in pursuit of this mistaken notion the primary object was neglected—the breed of sheep was but little attended to, and improvement in the preparation of the fleece was generally’ disregarded. The punishment of all this has come,-

and it has taught a lesson to our sheep-farmers, who are now wisely availing themselves of the teachings of adversity by the adoption of a system of wool-growing which will be beneficial, not only to the wool, but also to the sheep." We have before us a sample of wool, washed on the sheep’s back, from the run of Dr. Renwick. It is pure, and white as the driven snow ; soft and flexible, and the “staple” draws out in silvery threads, which show that it is fit to go at once into the spinning mill, and undergo the first operation without further preparation. The process by which this is effected is not necessary to describe; except to mention the fact that by a system of tanks, baths, and other mechanical arrangements, a large number of sheep can be thoroughly cleansed in the fleece in an hour’s time with hot water mixed soap and soda. The details of the method the practical sheep-farmer already knows, and is putting in practice. What we are desirous of showing is the profit which arises out of this changed system of woolgrowing. Firstly, this cleansing process, while benefiting the fleece, cannot fail also to do good to the sheep by keeping down disease, which, in the home country where sheep are reared, has been greatly reduced by reason of cleanliness alone. In the next place, tfie wool being thoroughly cleansed before it is shorn from the sheep’s back, is preserved in the fleece compact and whole, and is not disturbed in its fibres in the manner which is inevitable when the fleece in grease has to be scoured after shearing. This of itself adds considerably to the value of wool washed on the sheep as compared with that of wool washed iu the fleece. In the matter of a comparison between wool sent home “in grease” and that sent cleansed by the new system, a lew figures will best explain the advantages flowing to the sheep-farmer from the latter system. Looking on the apparatus as a necessary plant, which costs a few hundred pounds at the out-set, and is regarded simply as capital, we find that the cost of washing is not more than a penny per sheep. An ordinary fleece weighs about four and a-half pounds in the grease. Washed in this manner it weighs three pounds, thus losing say one third ; the actual loss is said to be thirty per cent., but we take it at one third, which is rather more, and is an error on the safe side in calculations of this kind. There - is thus, out of every four and a-half of wool formerly sent home in grease, a saving of freight on one and a-half pounds- Wool in grease is worth about Bd. per pound. Washed by the new process it is worth Is. fid. to 25.; and an advance of Is. fid. per pound, with the expectation of larger returns, has been made on wool so produced. From these figures a very instructive sum, or rather, by way of contrast, two sums in arithmetic can be performed, thus: — Wool in Grease.

£24 14 9 This yield is nearly cent per cent additional. It is an increase of over 2s. 3d. per fleece, besides the advantage to the health of the animal. These are instructive figures, and we commend them to the careful, and we hope profitable, consideration of all who are directly interested in sheep and wool, and who have not yet adopted the process now at work on Dr. Renwick’s run, with the advice, “ Go ye .r- and do likewise.”— Colonist.

£ s. d. 100 Sheep = 450Ib8. wool, @ 8d. per lb 15 0 0 Deduct —Freight to London, @0|d per lb 1 12 10 £13 7 2 Wool Washed on Sheep’s Back. 100 Sheep = SOOlbs. wool, at (average) 1b. 9d. per lb 26 6 0 Deduct —Cost of washing, @ Id per head 8s 4d ; freight, £1 Is lid... 1 10 3