WOOL-FARMERS' PARCELS.

Otago Witness, Issue 1824, 5 November 1886, Page 6

WOOL-FARMERS' PARCELS.

Ever since the adoption, of sheep husbandry by farmers they have complained that their parcels of wool do not command the same attention from buyers or realise as good prices as do the large lots. The grievance is more fancied than real, as will be perceived by an examination of the open sample bales on a sale day. In the smaller lots there is visible irregularity, careless skirting, and too frequently a number of faulty fleeces packed with • others of superior quality. Consequently competition for such parcels is limited to dealers and scourers who bid to a limit which leaves a considerable margin to pay for sorting, classing, and repacking. Hence a few objectionable fleeces in a bale lower and fix the value of the entire parcel, for intending buyers have neither the time nor opportunity to determine exactly the extent of the fault, and their estimate of value necessarily provides against possible contingencies. Experienced flockmasters are well aware of this, and therefore great care is bestowed in the preparation of station clips for sale. Whatever the quality, there is thorough classification and uniformity. Therefore buyers know precisely the market value of the lot. Farmers labour to some extent at a disadvantage, inasmuch as they cannot afford to pay experts to classify their wool; but in this colony, where the sheep on farms are almost invariably crossbreds, niceties of classification of the wool, such as are indispensable in large merino flocks, are not required. Evenness, sufficient skirting, careful folding, and cleanliness will make the smallest lot so attractive to buyers that the full value will be realised.

Many of the defects in small clips are contracted at shearing time. Inexperienced hands are frequently employed in the work, and there are perpetual struggles between the shearers and the sheep on a dusty or foul floor of the outhouse or shed wherein operations are carried on. Dust, straw, and other objectionable matter are picked up in the wool, and second cuts or " snippings " are regarded as a matter of course. Even shearing should be a prominent consideration, especially if the sheep are to be held over another year, because the closer and morely evenly a sheep is shorn the better the next year's fleece will be. If, however, second cutting is permitted, a portion of the very best wool is lost among the locks and pieces. The farmer even with comparatively unskilled shearers has a great advantage over the "bosß " of a large shed, and especially in regard to the young sheep and breeding ewes. With only, say, a couple of shearers at work, an intelligent person can observe a radically indifferent fleece and " mark " the sheep at once, so that when branding afterwards the animal will be placed with the "cast" lot to be fattened off and sold. The farmers' time will be fully occupied in attending to the details of the work in the observance of the shearing, the skirting and classing of the fleeces, and tidy packing. The classing is really a simple matter if the long-woolled or crossbred sheep are of one particuiar strain of breeding. Then the simple divisions into ewe, wether, and hogget are sufficient; in a mixed lot, however, fineness must be considered. As, for example, three-quarter-breds should properly be the highest grade, but among the fleeces there will be numbers that should be classed with the halfbred. In all cases the rule should be strictly adhered to to put all tender, dingy, and matted fleeces into one bale, and which should bear a distinct brand. Firm and compact rolling adds much to the appearance of the wool, and the practice of tying with string should be abandoned. This apparently trifling detail has been brought prominently under the notice of woolgrowers lately by the Home manufacturers, because of the damage occasioned to machinery •by pieces of coarse string used in tying. In a farmer's clip there is no necessity for tying, beo^usq a well rolled fleece can be lifted, placed in

the bale, and firmly spade -packed without opening or disarranging it. Inattention to skirting depreciates the value of small clips more than perhaps anything else, and in regard to this material part of the work, carelessness on the part of the farmer is utterly inexcusable. His work is not hurried, and he has the opportunity of removing at leisure every inferior portion of the wool without grabbing any of the better class adjoining. The fleece need not be robbed of a particle of the best wool, as is too frequently the case in " big-shed" work, and this should be an important consideration where the material is worth from 6d to lOd per lb. A lot, however small, that has the fadge of locks and pieces, another of tender and faulty fleeces, and the balance evenly classed, commends itself to buyers, while irregular parcels are passed over by those who would give full value, and relegated to dealers who profit by the purchase of ordinary farm clips. It has been traly observed that "if the owners of small clips desire to realise prices approximating those paid for station brands, they must raise the standard of their wools," and it should be received as a fundamental principal by woolgrowers that the more carefully a clip is prepared for market the greater will be the profit.