AUSTRALIAN WOOL.

Otago Witness, Issue 1340, 4 August 1877, Page 18

AUSTRALIAN WOOL.

The superiority of the Australian wool which is beginning to find its way into American markets is drawn attention to by the Press '.—At a recent auction sale in San Francisco, Californian wools were (told at prices ranging from 13 cents to 22 cents per lb., while there were 9 bales of Australian which sold at 36£ cents, and 23 bales which sold for 39 cents/ " Why this difference," it is asked by one journal '? " Why should not California woolgrowers get the best prices 1 It is quite certain that they do not. The well-bred Merino sheep has always been popular in California, because he&would live where no other sheep could — on rough, dry mountain sides, with the - smallest modicum of pasture, and with little or no care. His carcase only makes tolerable mutton. But it can be sold to butchers at rates which pay better, it is said, than large long-wool sheep. These contrasts in the prfces of wool, together with the decimation of flocks from drought, will have some influence in bringing about a revolution in sheep husbandry in California. If the best classes of Australian wool sell for nearly 100 psr cent, in this market above the Californian article, it is certain- that wool-growers here will take notice of that fact. Sheep husbandry has not been prosperous here for the last two years, it is a good time •to inquire if wool-growers here cannot do something more to insure future prospertiy. They cannot prevent droughts, but they can produce better wool and better mutton, and a substantial gain may be made in the long run in this direction."