ASPECTS OF WOOL PRODUCTION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 20 February 1931, Page 10

ASPECTS OF WOOL PRODUCTION

ADVICE TO GROWERS LONGER STAPLE OR FINER QUALITY Speaking at Solway at the presentation of the challenge trophy for the Farmers’ Union fleece competitions, Mr William Perry, president of the Royal Agricultural Society, dealt interestingly with the national aspects of wool production. Mr Perry said that Mr Sidey, of the Canterbury Agricultural College, who had recently been Home studying the wool question at the Wool Research Station in the Old Country, had expressed the opinion to him that Romney purebred wool was equal in quality to Corriedale. The statement had been made at Home, Mr Perry added, that Corriedale was the wool and that New Zealand growers ought to breed their wool to that standard; but that argument; had practically been disproved. One was of practically as good a quality as the other. Romney wool of round fibre made first class worsted cloth. He was very pleased to say that the wool of Romney sheep in the North Island—•. he could not speak about the South Island—was very much better than it was three or four years ago. He believed that, if what had been dono were followed up, New Zealand, in a few years’ time, would again have the reputation it formerly enjoyed of producing the best wool in the world.. The head of one of the big woollen firms at Home had told him in Wellington that there was a great shortage of what they called preparing wool—wool of long staple and fair-sized fibre. Two kinds of wool were wanted at Home —this long staple wool and wool of finer quality. Growers should concentrate on producing one or the other. Mr Perry advocated getting a qualified man to go round New Zealand advising farmers on the selection of sheep for wool production. If this were done a wonderful improvement would be witnessed in a few years.