RURAL NOTES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 14056, 13 November 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

RURAL NOTES.

(By ".Koradi.") CLASSING WOOL. Last • week 1 promised to write something about the classing or grading of wool this week. As luck would have it, last week's supplement contained an article on wool-classing, an article in the shape of a catechism supplied to "The Dominion," by Air Sam Wood, the instructor to several technical classes in the Hawke's Bay district. Air Sam Wood was a sorter m some, of the. Bradford mills, and has probablv had thousands of fleeces through his hands. The article, in question, therefore, has the stamp ol authority upon it, and all sheep farmers would do well to read and study it. The portion of the article which relates directly to the grading of a clip is contained in the answer to the last question : "Give, a short description of how you would set about classing, and despatching to the port a crossbred clip of, say,' .150 bales from a Lincoln and Romney flock, tiiere being some pure Romney and some pure Lincoln sheep, the remainder being a cross between the two." Now in South Canterbury there are not a great many clips'of 150 bales and over, and where those clips exist the owners usually pay professional classers to do the. work of grading and managing the get up of the clip. It is not the owners of these clips who need some guidance as to preparing their wool for the market. It is the smaller men with clips ranging up to about fifty, who are careless and perhaps somewhat ignorant as to what they should do in working up their clip. Of course we do not go in for 'jßonineys and Lincolns to any great extent in

South Canterbury. It is the Leieesters with which wc arc chiefly concerned, they usually carrying on v tiie cross breeding from the half bred. I shall deal, therefore, with the average crossbred clip, which, perhaps, includes some half bred. A reference to Air. Sam Brown's article will explain any technical nbrases which may occur.

Tn grading any clip, it is essential that hoggets' wool, and that of wethers, ewes, and rams should he kept and classed separately. may include maiden ewes, as the wool should be very similar. In classing wool it is essential that five oliaraetor-

istics are kept sight .of. The five points arc:—Length of staple, quality, soundness, rendition and colour. Tt would never do to put long and short stapled wool in the same hale, nor would it be the rig.ht thing to mix strong and fine wool, strong and tender, heavy and dirty with lidht and clean, and dingy ' with ' bright. Generally speaking it is advisable, to make two ton"sorts. It must he remembered that the object should he to keep down the number of classes as much as possible. It may be possible in a big clin to make a first and second combing strong halfbrcd, a first and second combing fine half bred, and the same with the throequartcrbreds, but in the average farm clip it is only advisable to make a first and second half bred, a first and second threequarter-bred, and first and second crosshred, with a third crossbred if the clip warrants it. This means that nil otlier things being equal the fine is classed away from the strong. 01 course in all cases the dingy, sandy, wastv. matted, or cotted wo pis are kept' bv themselves. In a small dip the dingy, sandy and wasty may be classed together. It would bo well il those who go in for a bit of classing would try and fix in their minds some idea as to spinning counts in wool. As far as nossible it is desirable to keep the various counts together.. If the strong or coarse, and • the fine are mixed up together, the buyer will base bis price on the cheapest wool in thebaic. It is therefore essential that strong and fine, clean and dirty shall not be mixed up together. Keep the. top sorts very good, and very true to the tvne decided upon. If there is the slightest doubt as to the general nil-round quality of a fleece put it down. Do not ienpardise, the top lots; they mav, help the lower lots. It should not bo difficult in any, clip to distinguish between strong and fine wool to the extent of a difference in the price of a halfpenny per pound, and that can be done in an even-look-ing line, of sheen. A test should always be made for soundness. A fleece with a break in it, is bound to lose a lot in the combing process, and in valuing wool this has to be taken into account. The first combing then & insist in bright bulky, firm stapled fleeces of good length. no second combing should be stronger but should be as clean and as own as possible, though, of course it nw> varv more than the top lot W e.ik, wasty, volk stained, short and broken fleeces,'should bo kept separate and marked "fleece" or simply "combm?. \s I stated last week, skirtniK should be done fairly .heavily, and these pieces should be graded into first arid second pieces. The s first pre** should Vie clean, 'free from all seeds , stains, and the wool should be sound pieces. Second pieces are f tlie rejected pieces of wool made when picking out the first pieces. All the trimni.ngs from the first pieces may go in. .1 lien there should he a class for locks, which will comprise the small pieces that tall through the table, and the stained pieces of wool got off the dags If the clio is a' sma-U ' one, the locks and second pieces may go together under tlie name of second pieces. TSo matted wool should go into the first pieces such' as matted chins. In big clips there is usuallv a class for stained nieces from the britch and pirates, and into this class the seedy, matted ('lnns would go. Betlv wool should be kept by itself, and it must be looked over in order that all staiiis may be removed. Grutchings must also he kept separate and should on no account be" mixed with the. locks. They are usuallv sold as crutchings, and if they are clean and well nicked over they should bring a fair price. In seeing that these secondary portions of the wool are properly prepared and classed; too often a good deal of attention is paid to the top lots, while the. pieces, bellies, and locks are lelt to take care of themselves. This should not bo. It is quite, possible, even in a moderate)v sized Hock to pay for the whole shearing with the difference between properly prepared pieces, 'etc., and the same wool carelessly thrown together. At the commencement of the. shearing it is necessary to yet some standard In work by in regard to the. different sorts. It is not advisable, to start straight away dividing the fleeces into first, second, and third lots. It is better to keep all the. fleeces together for a while, and then make a trial classing before finally deciding upon the classes. A wool-classer cannot, in my opinion, go into a shed, and class according to a. fixed standard. Each farm has a different style, and class of sheep.' and consequently of wool, and the elasser must fix his types according to the wool he is handling. The bulk of the wool, fully two-thirds, if the clip is at all a decent one, sliould go into the top sort, and as I have said, this ton sort must be as uniform ;is possible in quality, length, colour, condition, and soundness. These Jive points musi always be. borne in mind. A well classed clip enable:; a buyer to bid up with confidence. He. knows what he is bidding for, whereas if the clip has been thrown together anyhow, he is working a good deal in the dark, and the prices must suffer. If a

clip is found to he a good one, it is almost certain that the buyer ot it will ho on the look-out for it another season. Sonic, farmers always sell at the same place, and at the same sale each year in order that their clips may he looked for. It is a. notorious fact, however, that some, very' poorly got-up clips have been those more carefully prepared, and it is this fact that has led many farmers to adopt a careless way of working up the clip. Tidiness should be present in all woolshcds, however small they may bo. The bales should bo neatly pressed and sown, and branded only with the wool brand, or the. name of the owner, or of the farm, and numbered. COLONIAL WOOL SALES.

1 notice that' an attempt is being made by some London wool-brokers to get growers to ship their clips direct to London. The tendency is quite the other way, and is likely to continue so, Local sales seem to lie growing into greater importance each year, and uo'v quite an army of buyers attend sales in Australia- and Now Zealand. It is stated that these buyers are here, in the look-out for snips, and that they stand a better chance of •getting these snips out here than they do in London ,because" the competition is not so great. Those who sell locally have 'the advantage of being able to keep a direct control over their wool. If they sell the cash is theirs at once, and they have none of the anxious waiting for months experienced by those who ship Home. It is difficult to believe i-liat the competition is not good seeing that, British, American, and Continental buyers are all present. They certainly seem to bo anxious to buy; and sliovihl be able to purchase with the gi enter confidence when they see the wool rs it comes straight from the. sheep's back. Wool never looks so well when it comes out of the dumped hales in England ,as it does newly shorn, and comparatively loosely pressed. The number of those who sell locally is increasing year by year. The experience of a couple of seasons ago caused a good many who previously shipped, to change their mode of disposing of their wool. Last season, of coursp, shippers came off the best. It is doubtful if small growers gain much by shipping, and they would be. wise to invariably sell locally. Fairly large clips can go Home to better advantage, but after all it is questionable, whether, in the long run they gain much by shipping. Manufacturers, no doubt, "prefer to buy their raw material as near the place of production as possible. They (•■■in then ship direct to the port nearest their factories. It costs, say a halfpenny per lb. to send wool from Australia to Bradford, while it costs very nearly a. farthing a pound to send wool from London to Bradford by rail. American and Continental buyers find it very much to their advantage to buy here, and ship direct to their own countries. There is no need to send wool to London to bo handled and reshipped to where it is wanted, processes which all cost money. Local brokers have done a good deal towards enabling wool 'to he well displayed. Big, well-lighted stores, replete with every facility for cheap and rapid handling have, been erected and fitted at great cost. It can be displayed, even in towns the size of Timaru, to snlendid advantage. In. some instances re-cla.ssing and the grouping of "star" lots have been undertaken successfully,' and larger prices have been obtained than would have been the case had the wool been sold as it was sent in, and sold also by itself. This re-classing might lie more extensively patronised if the prices for doing it were not on the high side.'

THE DRAFT ALLOWANCE. Wool-growers have for many years protested ineffectually against the draft allowance of one pound in each hundred on all wool exported. There is going to bo a. big fight between brokers and buyers in Australia oyer the matter, and we should lend the brokers a hand in getting the iniquitous custom abolished. It is true that it seems a little affair to quarrel about, totalling in all from three to three and a half pounds weight per bale, but in clips of a fair size even that small weight tallies up. For instance on a fifty bale clip it means that about half a bale is given in to tlie buyer for nothing. And there, is no apparent reason why the allowance should be m ; )de nowadavs. A contributor to the "Sydney Mail" says:—"As an allowance for errors in weighing it is unwarranted because the scales of to-day are accurate to the minutest fraction, the wool is weighed by sworn weighers, and tlie buyers have their representatives to re-weigh wool in the case of disputes. As an allowance for moisture in wool it is unwarranted, because buyers value wool upon its clean scoured

yield and allow for moisture. Were | ■ lt „„t so growers would havo a serious .rriovanco in iii-weighte being take when wool gains moisture when stoict „d would demand that wool be so 1,1 ji outweights. . . There is only one possible reason winch can te brought to bear against the .abolition of the allowance, that it is an okll time custom and wool users have been so Ion" accustomed to then- perquisite of a proportion of free wool that they are naturally loth to give it up. The wool trade is conservative to the backbone, and it adheres to old-time , customs with great tenacity. .But the time has come for reform. Growers who have submitted to a custom operating against their interests have only <lonc so because of their inability of 'effecting a reform. This inability has been simply because the balance of power was in the old world, where wool users' interests oversha- ! dovv those of producers."

THICK VERSUS THIN CREAM

Home separation is becoming more and more a. practice in South Canterbury. It makes a little more work than the, part system, but, it is by far the more satisfactory method. The milk is skimmed cleaner, and the cream can bo sold to the factory at a good price, thus saving the work of making up large parcels of butter on the farm, -a. work that is a nightmare to many a housewife. : Moreover, the price given for home-niade dairy butter is very often -extremely small. A -dairy to bold a separator and a cream can need not be an elaborate affair. There is, of course, the matter of carting the cream to the station, but that is easily overcome except in the ease of lensrthy distances from the railway. Most farmers have' to visit the town or ■ township at least twice a week. If the distance from the railway is too great for this bi-weekly visit undertaken, then it pavs to bavo the separator and make the butter on the farm. More butter is procured than under tbe pan system, and more money per pound can be procured for the butter. _ There is some difference of opinion as to wbether it is advisable to separate or skim a thick or a thin cream. Most separators are adjusted in the works, and personally I favour a fairly thin cream, because it must be easier for the machine to do its work "roperly. The cream is force-* through a very small aperture, and it stands to reason that the thinner it is in reason the easier the forcing is done. Of course, more milk is sent away in the cream than would be the case with thick cream, but after all a few pounds per week of skimmed milk makes no difference to most farms. There are some very i good reasons why a. thick cream is ; desirable and an exchange thus puts ! the matter in favour'of thick cream. "•There aro a number of advantages Jin skimming a thick cream. For one J thing there is more skim milk left ! for feeding young stock. Then less i room is required for the ereajn while, it is being gathered, less ice or cold water is required to cool it, -because there is a smaller volume to cool. Thick cream will remain sweet for a longer time than thin cream will, that is, if conditions arc equal, and it will churn more easily and make a better flavoured butter. In addition to all these there is the advantage, if one is a- patron of a creamery, of bavins Jess cream to haul and less buttermilk to lose. Cream should be of such, richness that ono gallon (I.Olbs)' of it will yield at least three or four pounds of butter. Every cream separator has a device for regulating tho richness of tho cream and everyone using the separator should understand tho manner in which tho thickness of the cream skimmed is regulated. Inmost machines tho adjustment is at the cream outlet. If so, by turning the cream screw in the cream will be richer and by turning' it out the cream will ho thinner. Every separator user should regulate tho adjustment until ho is getting the richest cream consistent with close skimming." It will bo noticed that the writer states that cream should bo of such richness that ono gallon (lOlbs) of it will yield at least 3 or four pounds of butter. Threo 'pounds' of butter to ten pounds of cream cannot be said to bo a thick cream. I fancy that most of our separators aro set at about that.

JOTTINGS. Holders of wheat are pleased to note- that there is some enquiry on, tho part of millers both in ■ Christchureji'and Dunedin. There is yet some little hope that -those who havesome wheat yet on hand will bo able to como out on tho right side after all. Prospects for the holders" of oats—there are nob many—are distinctly encouraging. And there is every prospect that prices will bo better for that cereal next year than they wero last year. Oats have been ncglacted a good deal for wheat, and tho harvest at Homo has not been a good one. In places where tho crops were looking too well, tho nor'westers of this week were not unwelcome. And where tho work of killing weeds was being dono tho dry, hot weather has been an invaluable aid. Grass has hardened a good deal, but tho country does not look as green as it did' a week' ago. A gentle shower is needed to keep tho grass going. • "Straggler 1 ' in tho '"Weekly Press " has some very nice tilings to say about tho Ximaru Show, but. he also criticises it adversely in one or two-points. Ho says:—"Tho show catalogue of the Timaru Association contains headings of sections that need revision. Now that half-bred sheep, inbred for hvo generations, are called Oorriedales, thero is no need to retain tho old definition of "inbred halfbreds," as it is riot satisfactory to Oorriedalo breeders. Why Jerseys should bo called Alderneys is a ques-. tion tho Timaru Association could perhaps answer, though I do not.know who else could do so. .... ." Last year I drew attention to the fact that tho Timaru Association were behindhand in the-matter of,,tho colour of their award cards. Tho colours of tho-Royal Agricultural* Society of England were adopted some years ago by the New Zealand A. and P. Associations' Conference, and they are used by all tho largo associations in the- Dominion. To anyone used to tho standard colours, theso irregular colours arc very misleading, for ono gets into tho habit of looking at the colour of tho card only to find' how an. exhibit has been placed. Only tho first prize card at Timaru' this year was correct in colour."