CHEMICAL STUDY OF SHEEP FLEECES

Southland Times, Issue 24106, 20 April 1940, Page 14

CHEMICAL STUDY OF SHEEP FLEECES

INVESTIGATIONS UNDERTAKEN IN AUSTRALIA Wool production is Australia’s greatest industry, but the sheep produces in its fleece considerable quantities of constituents other than wool, and not a great deal is known about these constituents. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research has just published as its Bulletin 130 a report on the whole matter. Taking the Australian wool clip as a whole, it is probable that only from 50 to 55 per cent, of its weight represents actual wool fibres. Apart from dust and vegetable debris, the total annual clip contains approximately 80,000 tons of wool wax and about 30,000 tons of “suint,” yet only a limited amount of this wax finds its way into commerce, and no use is made of the suint, save on rare occasions to recover potassium salts from it. The report deals with investigations that have been carried out in the McMaster Laboratory, Sydney, to determine what may be regarded as the normal variations in the fleece constitutents and to discover reliable and practicable methods of sampling. The results will serve as a basis for detailed work on specific problems which involve the chemistry of the fleece. They may be applied, for instance, in a study of “fleece rot,” or in the study of the susceptibility of the sheep to attack by blowflies. A knowledge of the chemistry of the fleece is also essential if the best results are to be obtained from the use of fluids in dips and in the treatment for skin diseases.

Part of the work reported in the Bulletin was considerably assisted by a grant from the Australian Wool Board.