WOOL SALES AT NAPIER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 1188, 10 December 1924, Page 3

WOOL SALES AT NAPIER.

REACTION IN PRICES. Per Pre«s Association. NAPIER, Dec. 9. Tile second, wool sale of the season in Napier, opened this evening, when about 80€0 bales of a total catalogue of 28,377 were offered to the usuul bench of buyers, the majority of whom appeared to loolc on. . . Many buyers who tool: large quantities at the first sale hardly put in a single bid to-night, but two new operators helped to maintain the market to some extent, otherwise the market would have shown a very heuvy decline. As it was, fleece wool, taken all round, showed a decrease on the last Napier sale of up to 2d. Scouring wool declined Id and super * fleece wool was ulso easier, but on the other hand good pieces and necks met with keen competition from France and New Zealand mills and showed an increase off pievious sules rates. One lot of necks brought 24d. Lambs’ wool showing any quality was keenly 'sought after and prices were maintained. Southdown went as high as 34’d and halfbred to 323 d. One lot of hoggets reached 283 d, but the bulk of this cluss sold at. several pence less th&n that anticipated. When (he half a dozen buyers now operating had their full requirements, there was a further considerable drop in prices. Bidding lacked animation. In fact, an auctioneer, was provoked into such remarks as “Get to it'’ and “Como on, or you’ll go to sleep.”

KEEN COMPETITION IN SYDNEY. SYDNEY, Dec 9. At the wool sales, competition was keen and the market firm. Super wools of specially fine quality realised extreme rates. Crossbreds of all grades made full late rales and greasy merino realised which is a record for the Australian market. —Press Association. OTAGO’S GOOD CATALOGUE. DUNEDIN, Dec. 6. A fortnight hence tho first Dunedin wool sale of the current season’s series is to be held. Last year the catalogue for tlie corresponding sale held on December 17 comprised about 13,000 bales. This year the offerings promise to be considerably heavier. Wool is coming in freely. It has been a good spring, free from much rain, and shearing would have been even more forward but for difficulty in getting shearers, who have presumably been delayed by broken weather in the North Island. This scarcity is fairly acute in Otago, and operates against the keenness of growers to take advantage of the phenomenal prices ruling. Already some of the station clips are coming in, and the wool is opening up very well indeed.

HOT AIR TO DRY CROPS. WOMAN’S IDEA FROM DRYING OF lIAIR. A woman's brain is behind the research carried out by the Oxford University s Institute oE Agricultural Engineering into the problem of how to make the farmer independent of weather conditions in harvesting his crops. The w ife of Captain B. J. Owen, the director of the institute, suggested the hairdressers’ use of hot air for hair-drying as a guide in solving the problem. Captain Owen said that he tried the idea with very satisfactory results. Haystacks had been dried with hot air in ten hours at a. cost much less than that of drying in a field by ordinary means. The principle of the process, which was demonstrated to farmers and representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture at the University Farm, Sandford, near Oxford, is to drive hot air into the central chamber of a hay or corn rick and radiate it to all the parts. STOCK MARKET. The New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co., Ltd., Palmerston North, report: —At our hlimatangi sale on Monday we had a fair yarding. A good sale resulted at prices on par with recent sales. Fat cows, £4 17s 6d, £5, £5 ss, £5 10s to £6 2s 6d; forward cows, £3, £3 10s. £4 to £4 7s 6d; store cows. 37s to £2 15s; potter bulls, £4 ss, £4 12s 6d to £5 10s; dairy cows, £4 5s to £5 7s 6d; springing heifers, £5 ss; 10-months small heifers, 21s to 365. SOUTHLAND SHOW. Per Press Association. INVERCARGILL. Dec. 9. The 58th annual Summer Show of the Southland A. and' P. Society opened today in glorious weather with excellent entries and a large attendance for an of! day. Some excellent stock was exhibited and in this connection a prominent breeder stated it was quite up to the standard of the recent Royal Show. Crowds are in the city from all over the Dominion and the indications point to a record attendance to-morrow, Poople’s Dav.