Woodville Examiner. (PUBLISHED BI-WEEKLY.) Sine odio ; sine prejudicio. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1883. THE WOOL SEASON.

Woodville Examiner, Volume 1, Issue 23, 15 December 1883, Page 2

Woodville Examiner. (PUBLISHED 81-WEEKLY.) Sine odio ; sine prejudicio. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1883. THE WOOL SEASON.

At Tina season of the year, and aft«T such general depression, ft is if ell to consider to what extent a district like this depends npon its exports, and how he same are likely to tn n out l his year. Up till quite lately, the reports from Rome shewed that the wool market was extremely sluggish, but since that the demand has increased ateadily ( andt e prices realised have b’en more and more encouraging. Supposing the Woodviile District to contain 5,000 sheep, the annual return from wool if sold at 7d per lb, would, be £Bl6 13b 4d, supposing each tieec? to weigh, on an average, fire pounds. A fall of 2d per lb in the price, however, would reduce this to £583 6a Bd, which means a Joss of £233 6s Bd, a considerable one in a emMl district like this. So that, although we do not depend entirely upon wool here, as tome districts do, still the price of that article certainly must affect us considerably. We do not expect that wool has actually fallen this year, bnt>, on the contrary, truft that, by the time the Woodviile can place it in the market, it will realize considerably more than it did last year. One great drawback that bush sheepfarnurs have to contend with, is the dirty state that the wool is apt to get into, through contact with the charred logs that lie on all hush farm*. Last year, wool was sold in this locality for Gd, when wool grown on open court'rj, and not in the el’ghtost degree different, either in staple, quality, or grease, was realizing 8J and B|d. We take it that the chief cause of snch an enormous difference as this is, that buyers object to dirty fleecesi Of course dirty wool may weigh a trifle heavier too, but this does not affect the price so much as the discolouring caused by charcoal. Why the objection should be so strong is hard to say, charcoal ont of the fleece, but tba’ this for scouring tea'ily tafeei stains cf objection is held, and strongly, is wellknown by all wool-growers in this district j The best rem dy that suggests itself to ns is, that bush wool-growers should scoor the wool before putting it in the market. Scoured wool fetches from lOd to Is 2d, and even more when grersy wool stands at Si and-7d; Now, though a buyer can distinguish the charcoal Gained wool easily from Wool grdtfn in open country, when both are in grease, we should be carious to see whether even an expert, could distinguish between them, if both were carefully scoured. It must be plain then to all, that the only way to place our bush wool in the market, B ide by side with wool grown on open 'and, to be sold with it, and realize an equal price, is to scour it carefully first. It would then stand upon an equal footing, and bush sheep-farming would, we feel sore, be attended with much more satisfactory results. Wool loses weight by scouring, and tbe loss is aauually put down at 83 per cent on weight in grease. To see whether scouring actually does pay, we must enter into a few figures. We will suppose the market price of greasy wool to be 6d, and that of s milur scoured wool lid. A fleece in grease weighing 6K» would he worth 3s. The , same fleece scoured would be worth lOd per ib, but would only weigh 4H>-, but veu then, ib wealdj realize 3a Bd, or 8d more. At the very least tii<>n, after allowing for the cost of scouring, a gain of Id per Ib, would be made. But scoured wool often realize Is 2d and more, so the gain by scouring might be very much greater. We ebould much like a f*ir trial to be given at any rate, and are confident that this would be the most profitable and marketable form m which we could offer onr wool in the best market.