WOOL SUPPLIES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXL, Issue 20261, 9 November 1935, Page 15

WOOL SUPPLIES

GERMANY’S REQUIREMENTS ARTIFICIAL FIBRE DEARER THAN THAN WOOL It was announced some time ago that Germany contemplated increasing her flocks—now in the vicinity of 3,500,000 head to 10,000,000, and liberal financial assistance to farmers was spoken of. The Reich Union of Sheep Raisers has, however, expressed the view that it will take at least ten years to bring the flocks up to the higher figure, so that domestic production cannot be an immediate factor in rendering Germany independent of foreign supplies. In an estimate of prospective raw supplies in Germany in 1935 by Herr A. von Brasch, and published in “Wool Intelligence Notes,” the candid admission is made that production of wool in Germany is not likely to increase materially in the near future. He gives the estimated raw wool supplies likely to be available in 1935 (excluding imports), as ranging from 126.8 million lbs. of scoured wool to 188.5 million lbs. and estimates these figures as from 53 to 79 per cent, of Germany’s total requirements. Domestic production is put down as from 12.1 million lbs. to 14.3 millions lbs., whilst “recovered” wool is estimated as from 88.2 to 12.2 million lbs., and artificial fibres from 26.5 to 53 million lbs. In regard to substitute fibres, Herr von Brasch considered the future uncertain, and quoted the authority of Dr Ing. Walter Frenzel, Director of the Professional Textile School of Chemnitz, as saying that, under present conditions, the cost of these fibres is 50 per cent, higher than wool. A complete renunciation of foreign wool would mean a decline in the quality of German cloths, as most of the substitute fibres had small moisture holding capacity and lacked elasticity. Goods for export, as well as part of the domestic requirement of winter clothing, must be produced from foreign textile raw materials, while domestic wool and substitutes would be used mainly for women’s clothing, furnishing and decorative fabrics. Useful as the substitute fibres were in their proper sphere, they could not be considered to replace wool from the point of view of durability and quality, and could not be expected to play any great part in the export trade, the maintenance of which was vitally important to Germany. Herr von Brasch concludes, however, by remarking that it is possible that a new material may be evolved without special regard to the particular properties of the primary product, whether wool or cotton, and instances in support of his contention the large increase in the production of "Staple fibre’ ’in recent years in a number of countries.