FOREIGN SUBSTANCES IN WOOL.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12868, 2 January 1906, Page 3

FOREIGN SUBSTANCES IN WOOL.

(" Pastoralists' Review.") ' rCat P u . blicit y has been given in the press and by selling brokers on tJiis side to the complaints made in' a letter from Bradford Chamber of Commerce regarding the presence in Australian -wools of extraneous matter, principally pieces of string, 311 iit Qte a sample weighing about J i" 1 token out of a '.' consignment" from New South Wales, accompanied the letter. This consignment consisted of one bale, and the objectionable -rfiatter taken from it was made, up of pieces of' baling twine, a small piece of that looked like sugee, a piece- -of tinned- boot lace, a P ro l K> rt lorL ' of jute "fibre, and other rubbish. Apparently some careless or~ignorant rouseabout- had deposited in this one bale the sweepings of the station wool room, and people connected wjth • the trad© are inclined to think the' Bradford Chamber of Commerce might hare selected some more convincing instance of the shortcomings and delinquencies of Australian woolgrowere. At the same time, the question of jute fibre getting intenmxed with wool is a serious one, and only good can come of ventilating the subject and finding out, as far as possible, where or with whom the fault lies. To start with, the use pf twine •for tying fleeces may be said to be. entirely obsolete, and barring accident the only, hempen or jute . fibre that can get into the fleeces is that which may come off the inside of the bales, and even then only the fleeces pressed next- to the inside of the ba.es would be affected. Mostwool ba:es, however, are dressed down smooth on the inside, so that even this possible source of trouble is reduced to aminimum. To line the bales with paper would mean extra expense to the woolgrower, who thinks he does enough in providing the pack, and having lllbs. or mora deducted from the weight, to say nothing of the draft allowance of 1 lb "per cwt.. amounting to, say, 3 or 4 lbs per Sale of an additional- deduction. In Australian wool warehouses, where the system of showing and selling by sample bales -adopted, the bales have, of course, to be, opened, and

Out the twine with which tlie tops of the bales are sewn. A role insisted on by the buyers is, ■ however, that.-a <jertain proportion- of the Bample bales shall be shown bottom up; these have to.be gashed open, and ■ it inay. be remarked that every time the pack is cut some strands of fibre must be detached. In examining the bulk after purchase more cutting goes on by the buyer's examiner. .'lf the wool goes to Londonforsale or resale, as the case may be, every bale is again cut, and when being turned •out of .the bales to be treated .in the toprnak-. ing or ; other establishment, the most rhpid ■and V labour-saving . methods are employed, at the risk of more fibre being picked up by the wool./. That the fibre and other sub-, stances,.become intermixed, and are difficult of defection until appearing as undyed hairs in the'finished ..fabric,, is' due, in our opinion, more to the system of sorting, or non-sorting,, as now in vogue. Jute fibre, etc., has always, been present in wool, and to a much greater extent in earlier, than of late years, but, say, twenty years or mora ago sorting was. sorting, and the wool was carefully gone oyer to extract all foreign matter. The user as now more interested' in blending than in havings the wool minutely sortedi and rapidity of method and la-bour-saving is more-to him than the turning out of aru absolutely pure article. Until the blender took the place of theexperienced; and careful sorter, there were complaints of- extraneous matter being worked up with the tops, and.untU a:return is made to-the old time, efficient, if slower system qf sorting, it-seems-to"-us there willbe ho diminution of ■ comp'aints from manufac-. turers. ' ' ■