THE WOOL CHEQUE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1147, 7 June 1911, Page 8

THE WOOL CHEQUE.

' HOW TO EXPAND IT. Professor Lowrie, the former Director of Lincoln College, recently gave a lecture ■to some West Australian farmers, in which ho pointed out the necessity of nutting their wool on the market, in a condition likely to attract buyers. Re stated that farmers, as distinguished from pastoralists, had much to learn in this respect. Some, of the practices that lead to trouble were, he said: (1) Shearing in the chaff house, barn, or other farm building without taking care to have the walls and floors thoroughly swept clean of chaff, short straws, seeds, or other vegetable matter. (2) Putting tho sheep before shearing into yards near haystacks, or in yards strewn with windswept farm refuse. , (3) Leaving tho wool in bins before baling, exposed to dust, chaff, short straws, etc., blown in through tho open doors or windows. (4) Packing tho wool unskirted, and tumbling it in with bellies and pieces. (5) Packing with sound wool occasionally tender fleeces, or fleeces with a distinct break in the fibre, or fleeces that are cotted. (G) Packing indiscriminately long wool, short woni, halfbred. crossbred, and merino in the same bale, with the result that most buyers cannot touch it, and if purchased it brings a price determined approximately by the'duality of fleece of least value per lb., which the 'buyer may note in it, or it is bought at a discount with other similar parcels, to bo re-classed and spiel in larger lines at a handsome profit, or to be scoured and again sold at a profit. (7) Tying up the rolled fleeces with binder twine, or even sewing twine, instead of baling them merely rolled, and rolled not too tightly. (8) Tailing to turn tho • bales inside out, and shaking thoroughly, or sweeping, with a hard broom before filling. Singeing the bales when turned is the most effective way of clearing tho bale of stray fibres, but a thorough brushing would suffice. (9) Working without a sparred ' table on which to give the fleece a shako before skirting to free from some of the second cuts so common after bad shearing, (lflt Rolling the fleeces so that shoulder wool ■is inside. (11) Hewing up tho bales with binder twine. (12) Using inferior quality . woolpacks. If this dozen of practical blunders could be avoided, said Professor Lowrie, it would make for appreciably better returns for farmers' wool.