HANDLING OF WOOL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13649, 17 January 1908, Page 8

HANDLING OF WOOL.

VEGETABLE FIBRES.

RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE COM- / MITTEE. /; ' [rroM Ocr ows correspondent.] London, December 6. ;V ;At the offices of Messrs. Dalgety. on Wednesday afternoon a meeting was held of the Committee on Vegetable Fibres' in Wool. ' ' Mr. J. D. Pawcett, of Bradford, presided. 'S--This committee reported as to how the mischief is caused. The vegotab'.o substances which aro found at various times under j,- .'. varying conditions and in greatly varying •K; quantities may bo divided into two classes: (1) Vegetable substances in their natural fi, . • state, such as burrs, grass seeds, thorns; (2) vegetable fibres in more or less artificial association. With regard to tho first class, it was stated that many ingenious and costly mechanical devices had been invented to get rid of these things. The Yorkshire Wooloombers' Association paid £60,000 to a French 6yndioato for the English patent - rights of a process for deburring wool; and ' many times that sum had been .spent in the ; same quest. Tho most effective method K - was to " carbonise "or " extract " such substances by the uso of acids. That, however, inevitably injured and deteriorated the wool fibre itself. In practice it was only applied to such -wools as were "full of burr" or f: ; seed. It was a process not. to be seriously contemplated in connection with the better k, <?lasa of wools—the combing wools which fetched the highest prices—hence tho great , pains and cost incurred to get rid of these i: substances by mechanical means. Tho second class of fibres found their way into tho S; wool by man's assistance. They wore equally detrimental, nay, even more so, and v . more • difficult to eliminate. They wero usually either jute, hemp, or cotton. They ■were found as pieces of bagging, pieces of ■ rope or twine used in tying fleeces, pieces of sewing twine, shreds of bagging, twine, etc., more or less abraded, which had been > gathered up from the floor of the shearing. "IjV ihed,, the warehouse, or the quayside, with •, wool which had been pulled out for sampling , or had escaped through damage to tho tare. / The most car'oful investigation had shown, it was stated, that tho groat bulk of tho misit' chief was traceable directly or indirectly to , • the unsuitable character of tho woolpack in common uso in tho colonics. That pack ' was of jute, and tho quality had steadily . ' deteriorated for many years. • But the _ do- ; , terioration had been more pronounced since vv'the price of juto began to advanoo. _ A shorter fibre was now used, and the bagging v.;; ■ was not so hard or " clean " as it used to bo—it was more fuzzy." If a now pack be rubbed against the aleevo of a dark cloth '.-. coat it: would ait once be soon that a number of fibres had oomo off tho bag and wore . sticking to the coat. When. a bale of wool • was oponed it was found that the surface of > „ the wool which for three, six, or nine months had been in close contact with tho tare was frequently covered with thousands of such particles of jute fibre. Whenever and wherever the pack was cut the material of which j-,. it was made frayed, little bits coming off and sticking to the wool.

SOME OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS. ' As to remedies for tho evil, the first and foremost recommendation was the general adoption of a woolpack of such a oharaeter that it .would not depreciate the value of the wool it contained. The committee are pursuing inquiries in regard to the provi- ' ' sion of a better bag. They hope shortly to V be able to ' give further information and to iC." < recommend an improved woolpack -for general use. The adoption of such a standard pack, made of good, clean, hard twisted ?", \ jute Or hemp, yarn, carefully sewn so that L' the pack does not need to'be "cut down'.' •C ' ' at the cornera in the baling press, and provided with a separate piece,of canvas for i s the top of the bale, would do a vast deal to "mitigate the evil. The systematw emptying of the pack before it is put into the J:.; Tress is also recommended. It is uur.d that frequently littlo bits of ■canvas and ends of sowing twine, como inside tho new packs from tho factory. Care should bo taken to see that. theso are 4 shaken out. In the Shearing shod, in the ; classing and packing of wool, the utmost tare should bo used to prevent loose bits of "4k- twine, rope, or bagging coming near the v- - wool, or being swept up.with wool from the Hoor. The tying of the fleeces ought to bo . avoided entirely, and the hard twine used •• for sewing up tho bags should be blue or ; Other dark- colour. All straw, etc., should V 1 bo carefully removed from the shearing place before shearing begins. In stores and Warehouses . -where bales are exposed for , : sampling the necessary opening of tho tare ;• .' should bo done so as to. damage it as little ■ us possible. Bales should be opened at the • • jeams by cutting the sewing twine ; and all frayed edges and loose bite should be re* ; moved, and destroyed. The utmost care ■ . should be taken to ensure that the sweepings of warehouse floors should not bo put back into the wool. • . . i ■ It is recommended' . that printed cards should bo provided for hanging in shearing sheds and warehouses in tn.o following , terms for shearino SHEDS. - (1) AH straw, etc., should bo carefully re- • moved from the shearing (shod before actual shearing is begun. (2) Turn out each bag before packing the fvv:.v. wool, and see that il is clean and free from bits of hemp. (3) Loose bits of twine, bagging, or straw / .<■ should bo carefully kept apart from fc ; : ' • the wool. FOR WAREHOUSES. m All bales must bo opened at the seams >• only, by cutting tho blue twine. (2) Any frayed edges or loose pieces of string should be removed carefully and at once by men whose special care it is ( to watch tho wools when "on show." .. , ~ , - (3) Warehouse " puttings " ® houl care- • ' fully looked over before being iored to the bales. an interesting discussion. . ' Mr Acton Adams expressed tho opinion that the committee bad drawn up an ad- . ; nirable report, but public interest in the ' Ker appeared to be dying, and a model - ' .jack had not yet been selected. It was a pity that Bradford had not obtained speci■l; , 1 mens of a suitable woolpack from Calcutta -■ . and Dundee before taking «>tion. He was strongly of opinion that Calcutta must bo ; SS£ed before they decided on a pa* •- because most of the woolsacks came from there. The report by itself • would not induce people to adopt the remedies, and he did not think they would bo able to persuade the growers to adopt improved packs, unletti the buyers paid for them. But whataver they might decide to do, he did not think it would make muon difference, for ' the wool would always fetch it» value. At present wool-warehouse people were entrusted with the duty of marking the bales with the amount of tare to be taken off, in accordance with the amount of grease in the wool, and he suggested that they should also be entrusted to mark half the original cost of the pack to the manufacturers door, J. Ms movement was primarily in the interests of v wool-buyers, and it would bo extremely difficult to induce tho farmers to adopt an lm- . proved pack, unless they were offered, say, & / half the original oost, and thus unite all ' - parties in a sort of compromise. fe 1 - • The Chairman said they were not ready to recommend an improved pack yet. ' Herr P. Fleischl thought the matter lay between fife manufacturers and the growers, ■ »nd he 3id not know how far the latter ; ! we' willing to relive the manufacturers nl'the disadvantages arising from .fibres in : ; v the packs as at present in use. Neither the / wool buyers nor the topmakers were touched so far as their pockets were conoerned, for the oases were comparatively, rare where the manufacturer bought his wool in the lirst The Chairman remarked that, in his opinion, the wool-grower was the person who would eventually benefit by the use of an improved pack. It was the duty of the seller to deliver the stuff in a merchantable '<[ form, is was done in the case of all other 4l; kinds of raw material. '< Further consideration of this point was. deferred until the eub-oommitteo were able to recommend some particular packs. The I report was adopted, and it was decided to take such steps as should ( seoure that the view* of the committee would bo extensively •fv.r circulated through New Zealand, Australia, f) : and other wool-growing countries. f " Mr. H. Dawson &a.id several samples of improved woolpacka had been received, but K-: the committee were unable to recommend any of them. Responses from Calcutta on the subject were most unsatisfactory. Ho % was inclined to think that perhaps a solu- :• tion of the difficulty might be found in a / paper-lined bag (a sample of whioh had been received) if it could bo made strong ' • enough. The cost of this would be about " JOd per pack extra. An American firm professed to have a process whereby all jute fibres could be bo treated that they would &;i; *" not oome away, and this seemed to him a M' : valuable idea, and one which ought to be >-'*'/> . followed up. Another suggestion was for an .'.uwf ■ packjj which wpuld oost_ from ■ " •.,

6s 6d to 7s 6d, and this, of course, could sold again, or "used by the manufacturers. It was obvious that some radical chang« would have to be made in the packs, whether they stuck to jute packs or not, but, in any case, the change -would probably be brought about gradually. .. The following recommendation with regard to the handling of wools, when offered in London, was adopted:—"As every bale opened increases the quantity of hemp fibre in any lot of wool, buyers are recommended, in their own interests, not to cut about the bales more than is necessary. The committee, who aro. making this effort largely for the benefit of the buyers, think they should have their support in tho matter of this recommendation."

The members of the committee subsequently inspected various improved woolbales that had been submitted, and a subcommittee was appointed to examine them, and to make a report.