FOREIGN WOOL AT THE CENTENNIAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1296, 30 September 1876, Page 18

FOREIGN WOOL AT THE CENTENNIAL.

Australia and the Cape of Good Hope— those great sources of the world's supply — are largely represented at the Philadelphia show. And the opportunity for American wool-growers to form definite opinions concerning these foreign wools — the demand for which is increasing amongst us, is about as good as the present generation are likely to have. None of our predecessors, either as growers or manufacturers of wool, ever had such an opportunity as we now have to decide whether we should persevere in the effort to produce fine wools, equal to _ those shown by our firiends from the Pacific, or rather to direct our attention to the fullest in producing a heavier if a less fine fleece,than the best these Australians show us. For if the exhibits are a fair criterion of the produce of the Cape and the Australian, colonies, as we believe they are, then the latter, in so far as distinctness of type, character, and equality are concerned, are unmistakably distinct from the Cape wools. The latter approach closer to the American and European wools. But the Australian are all distinct. After looking over the decidedly magnificent assortments in the courts of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and New Zealand (all these countries are separately represented, let us recollect), then we begin to see what is meant by the term pure Australian merino wool. The exhibits of South Australia and New Zealand are shown in the bale, and although admirable in their way, and perhaps as valuable as the Queensland and New South Wales wools, they do not offer the same facilities for becoming acquainted with the real nature of the exhibits, and the animals from which they have been shorn.

We are looking at the subject from a breeder's point of view, mainly, but still taking quality, in a buyer's sense, into ( consideration, and we cannot but thank these Australian wool growers for sending their fleeces entire. "We have thus an opportunity to examine their products, with even more effectiveness than if they were on the backs of the sheep. We can see the length and quality of the staple on the shoulders,, back, belly, and loins ; can judge of the animal by the weight of the fleece ; can judge of the climate by the evenness of the staple, and its grazing capabilities by the length of the wool and its general appearance. In the Queensland court, all these particulars, so valuable to the grower, are given with a distinctness that shows careful, practical common sense in the preparation of the exhibits ; and, fortunately, these Queensland wools are a precise counterpart, in type, of th 9 Australian wools generally. All the fleece wool in this court is in glass cases, and is put up in admirable order for inspection. — Prairie Farmer.