ON THE MANAGEMENT OF WOOL AT SHEARING TIME.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 348, 4 November 1848, Page 144

ON THE MANAGEMENT OF WOOL AT SHEARING TIME.

[To the Editor of the Mark Lane Express."]

Sir — Will you allow me, through the medium of your widely-circulated paper, to offer a few suggestions to the growers of wool ? Probably my motive for so doing will be misunderstood, as lam a buyer of wool. It will doubtless be thought and said, that as such I have one word to say for growers, and two for myself. In reply to this I at once admit the consequence of attention to my advice would be mutual benefit to buyer and seller.

I have repeated opportunities of seeing wools from different parts of England, Ireland, and Scotland, laying side by side, in the large commission warehouses of Yorkshire and elsewhere, and at those times cannot help comparing them together in reference to their excellencies or defects, and find that in some districts the wools are much better managed than in others,, and are consequently Bold at higher prices, and, what is of great importance to the wool-stapler, are saleable in times of trade depression when badly managed wools are not.

The difference between good and bad management mainly arises from the following causes as regards the latter :—

Ist. A want of attention to clipping off the lumps of dung and dirt adhering to the fleeces round the tail and under the belly of the sheep before washing them.

2d. The custom in many parts, of washing in tubs or in stagnant ponds. Running water is essential to the proper purifying of the fleece.

3d. Allowing sheep after washing to be put on fallow ground, or folded on it. This is a most sad practice. It is almost as injurious to the wool to fold on dusty land at that time, although not exactly a fallow. By all means contrive for the few days wanted, that they lie on pasture, or on seed lands where the wet fleece cannot pick up the soil.

4th. Allowing the fleece to remain on too long after washing before shearing. This I am sorry to say is a growing evil, and the cause of more unpleasantness between buyer and seller in many districts than all other things put together. Three or four days, or a week at the farthest, is the utmost time that ought to be allowed. All beyond that time only undoes what has been done in the washing, and the buyer has to buy gravel and dirt instead of wool.

sth. A want of care as to the disposal of the fleeces after taking them off. The best possible way is, if not cold at once, to pack them in wool sheets. A large new one capable of bolding 12 to 16 tods, according to the breed of wool, may be bought for about five shillings, and if kept from the damp, would last good for twenty years. We live in times when the keen competition of trade reduces the profits of manufacturing operations to a small per centage, and therefore the value of differently managed wools is thoroughly tried and tested ; and those producing the greatest quantity, and the best quality of goods, will moat certainly command the highest prices. From the very bad state of the wool trade, I am confident this will be most decidedly the case this season. I am, sir, &c, H. Butler, Royston, Cambridgeshire, May 18, 1848.