WOOL-GROWING IN EAST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20255, 15 May 1929, Page 20

WOOL-GROWING IN EAST.

J EXPANDING INDUSTRY. For a great many years the slaughtering of sheep and the curing of the skins tvas the mam occupation in the sheep and goat industry in Manchuria and Eastern Mongolia, while the shearing of tho (leeco was considered to bo only a side-line. 3}ut of late, years more attention has been paid to the growing of wool, and the fleeces have been shorn from the live fiheep. As to breeds of sheep and coats maintained, the chief species is the native sheep, though it has been said that some of the western European breeds have been introduced. In f' |C majority of dislucls shearing takes place twice a year, tn .April and again in September, tho better clip being obtained at tho spring or Apiil shearing. tho range of which vaiics from 21b to" 31b. per head, while the autumn range is from 1-Jlh. to 21b. per bead. 'Hie wool is classed info three grades, viz.: Tsien mao—ordinary fleece wool; listen inao—washed wool; Tsoa mao foreign matter, dags, etc., which in some instances is up to 50 per cent. The goat fleece is known as Pei mao, and is graded into hair and wool, tho former being the rmter covering, and the latter the inner Covering of fur next to th 6 skin. The thief export port is Mukden, where there kre nine Chinese and seven Japanese wool Igents operating in buying and selling.