THE WOOL TRADE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18952, 28 August 1923, Page 10

THE WOOL TRADE.

POTENTIALITIES OF CHINA. China, with Tibet, is said to possess 70,000,000 sheep, and the o.utput of wool from these is about 200,000,0001 b in weight, or something like a twelfth of the world’s output Few people realise the large part China plays in the wool trade of the world, and ■with improved methods she may yet play a still larger part. Her stock of sheep, enormous as it is, might easily be much larger, for there are in Mongolia enormous stretches of fertile pastures that would support larger flocks than they do now. The winters in this part of the world are very severe, and the wool produced by the sheep is both Ion" and of very fine quality. There are five big wool markets in China —Tientsin, Calgan, Mukden, Paotao, and Tangkerh, the last-named being the most important. . Some think that China may one day rival Australia as wool-producing country, _ but there will have to be a revolution in Chinese methods before that can be. The Cl inese industry is badly organised, and much c.’ tho wool is spoiled by ignorance. Front some parts, for instance, the caravans arrive with the sheep’s ’wool mixed up with goat and camel hair.