FUTURE WOOL PRICES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27569, 11 December 1950, Page 4

FUTURE WOOL PRICES

Bright Prospects Seen By American Grower

The sheep population in the United States had dropped back from 50 000 000 in 1942 to 27,000,000 at the present time and the demands of American buyers at New Zealand and Australian .wool sales would keep prices at a satisfactory level for some time, said Mr Harry J. Devereaux, a prominent American woolgrower from Rapid City, South Dakota, America, when interviewed by the Daily Times last night. Mr Devereaux, who is accompanied by his wife, has been in New Zealand for a fortnight inspecting farms throughout the North and South Islands and he feels that the problems of woolgrowers in the United States and New Zealand are basically the same. The'information he has gained since he came to Australia and New Zealand will be of much value to him in his position as president of the American Wool Council.

In New Zealand, where there was a population of fewer than 2,000,000 people, the country carried 6,000.000 more sheep than the United States, which had a population of nearly 150,000,000 people, Mr Devereaux said “ On a national basis woolgrowing in the United States is small business,” he said, “and the value of the wool clip is only a fraction of 1 per cent, of the national income of 280 billion dollars!” Before the war, the United States had to import only a third of the wool it used for home consumption, but now it was importing between 75 per cent, and 80 per cent, of its requirements, Mr Devereaux said. Sheep to Seven Acres The New Zealand Wool Board had arranged its itinerary so that he could inspect all types of sheep farms throughout the Dominion, Mr Devereaux said, and he had b.een most impressed with the carrying capacity of some of the better farms in both islands. “Nature has been very kind to New Zealand, but the farmers have taken full advantage of their natural gifts and the land has been well handled,” he continued. In his own district sheep were raised on country which received only 13 inches of rain a year and the result was that each sheep had about seven acres apiece. In many parts of New Zealand it was possible to run four sheep to one acre. Sheep grazing was not profitable in many areas in the United States and that was the reason for the sharp decline in the sheep population since 1942. he said. The recent rises in wool prices would • probably have some effect on American growers increasing their flocks, but Mr Devereaux could not visualise the sheep population rising to its former peak of 50.000,000. Sheep were raised mostly in the poorer areas —country which would be similar in type to that of Central

Otago, from what he had heard of that district.

Mr Devereaux emphasised that the man-in-the-street in New Zealand and Australia would probably gain a wrong impression about the present high prices for wool. " Prices are not as high as the press leads people to believe” he said. When records were set at prices like 250 d a lb. they were paid for only a few bales of top-class wool and the general price for a clip was much lower. He mentioned that wool had not increased in price to the same extent as cotton. Extensive Interests

One of the most prominent of American woolgrowers, Mr Devereaux is chairman of the Board of Directors of the Wool Bureau, which does for the United States and Canada the wool publicity and promotion work done in other parts of the world by the International Wool Secretariat, and the wool boards of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. He is president of the American Wool Council and one of its most active supporters _ and is vice-president of the Rapid City National Bank. With other members of his family he operates large sheep ranches in South Dakota and is active in other industrial and agricultural operations. A member of a pioneer American family, Mr Devereaux began his career as a newspaper man in Lead and Deadwood, South Dakota. He is active in civic affairs in his own State and has served as a member of the State Legislature.

He was prominent in the organisation of the American Wool Council and in the negotiations which resulted in the amalgamation of that body and the International Wool Secretariat in the United States, now operating as the Wool Bureau, Inc.