AUSTRALIAN WOOL.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16815, 5 June 1926, Page 18 (Supplement)

AUSTRALIAN WOOL.

THE PRICE FOR QUALITY. There appears to he a consensus of opinion among wool experts and buyers that the average quality of Australian wool lias deteriorated during the recent years says the Australasian. Not only here, but at Bradford complaints have been made that superfine clips arc becoming scarcer and scarcer and that it is impossible to procure enough for requirements. Against such overwhelming expert evidence it is useless to attempt any refutation. Admitting, therefore, that broader wools arc grown on most of our grazing country the question arises .why the change has been effected. It is obvious enough that pastoralists nuixt have good and sufficient reasons to influence them in producing wool for which they are prepared to accept lower market values. They made the change voluntarily, and with their eyes wide open, and up to the present they are satisfied that the step was a right one. It is not tho lop price wool that is necessarily the most profitable to grow, and due consideration must be made for climatic conditions. A good deal lias been heard recently about the deterioration in quality of Queensland clips, and South Africa is repeatedly mentioned as likely to oust Australia from its position as the premier wool-producing country of the world. But the probability is that South Africa is really passing through the same experience as we did a couple of decades ago, and that ere long it will he deemed politic for the Dominion growers lo emulate our example and sacrifice some degree of quality for greater quantity. In hot climates wool lias a tendency to run to fineness, and unless fresh rams .are constantly introduced, fleeces lose their character, and become “fuzzy.” To understand why this transformation takes place it is necessary to study the wool fibre. This is hollow, and obtains its nutriment from the centre. When excessive heat, lack of feed, or shortage of water cause a sheep to become illnourished, the wool fibres are the first to suffer, and once they receive a check they never fully recover their former vigour and lustre. Length and yield are therefore sacrificed to a degree out of proportion to the slightly higher prices received for the finer type. At the'same time there is no doubt that we can grow wool of the same fine shafty qualities as that of earlier limes, if buyers are prepared lo pay prices commensurate with the loss in weight entailed in producing the requisite commodity. Australia is not tho only wool-producing country to largely relinquish the growing of s uperflne fleeces. Some years ago good merino flocks were common throughout Uruguay and the Argentine, but these have been largely superseded by crossbreds. In an address delivered by M. Maurice Dubrnlle, before members of the Bradford Textile Societv, ho stated that sheep farmers in the "South of France—no Led for the celebrated Arles wool, or which the French arc naturally and justly proud, had debased their superfine quality by crossbreeding with sheep with a coarser description of wool fibre. German manufacturers, at a recent conference in Berlin, also complained that certain of their Silesian shcepowncrs of fine flocks, producing exquisitely soft and silky wool, had resorted to injudicious crossbreeding, to the detriment of their great reputation. The solution to the problem lies in the establishment of a wider margin in prices between superfine and stronger wools Growers will produce the article .which best pays them, and hen respective values are such as lo prove it an economical advantage to revert lo sheep of the fine wool type, ample quantities of the requisite article will be forthcoming.