YORKSHIRE LETTER

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 201, 14 May 1918, Page 8

YORKSHIRE LETTER

COMBING VERSUS CLOTHING WOOLS (From Our Special Correspondent.) Bradford, March M. The uppermost wine in wooi circles to-ii,i,v is combing wrsus ciotliing wools, eni.iitij- arising out ui coiuuuoius outauiing in me great scheme oi '.Siatu uuuu-oi. a is no»- aumiucd in tDc best, uiiurniiiii circles tliac an t>! lor oi jm, omuni iiu.s ocen couimiiu-d Jiy m)hk ;..-

(ipuii.si.j.e party, ana \mue cue general iruili.' sue.'iis u> tniuk mat tlm resimusiuiu individual »nould im named, wb i innik ic i»iicj to let it net ac that. I i\o man is miallibk', but us the (JumI uiitci'u of Inquiry, in lar buck as luac August, urged upon the Jjcpartincnt ine uiivisiiijthty of taking ships for bringing nouii! tno wool wauled to KOfcp all cinssuj of niacliiiiery running, m> excuse whatever din be given ioi , neglecting such an important matter. The same sujjjcot was urged upon responsible parties Well in October and No /ember, n.d to;* tho trade to be now told that stocks of combing wool are dangerously low and that wool coiii.bmg is (o be reduced, shows clearly enough where things are. The writer I:as all along , maintained that if a practical mill man had been put at the head of thin business and given power to define tne class , !* of wool which arc to he brought \':vm Australia'' and .\eir Zealand, the present slide of ;>ifairs would never have (.listed, and it is high tune that everybody saw that nbove all tlio wool textile juliistry wants ft practical man at tho head ei Affairs, whether he lie connected with a big business or not. At the head of tho whole business of State control there ought to fos a man above military age who hss been in the turmoil oi the wool tradi. «ll his life. If this hail been the case, the present nuss and muddle would have been obviated, instcw nt that, the entire industry is now faced with unnecessary suffering, all' duo to the hicompste;».e >.)1 cliiciuis and ilioss lespon.si.Wet'or conducting the schemv of Mate- control. We very iiuich doubt if any of the men who are supposed to 110 conductiiig tho business wtro ever cimn(-cte:.l with -ne woollcii ond of tne industry. All iho oihows in charge as far cs tlw writer knous are simply connected with !he wqr.steil branch, chiefly tonmakers and spinners iit. that. Tho more one looks at the whole matter, the more one sees the operation of the inviolablo luiv of cause and effect.

What Is Combinn Wool? VI i! desire to-day (u niokp. our weekly contribution more cducaciona.l than usual, caking the opportunity of defin">S c(iml>in{j and clothing wool. In the Ki-st instance let us deal with combing wools. The'question naturally arises; What arc iliey? And the unswer con bi) given easily. Every practical sheep and wool man knows that „ shorn llwce is not absolutely uniform in 'jmility. It is the work of the cliissei to overhaul that fleece, in skirt it und to designate hot which class the >kirtd (lecce is put at Ihe time of shearing. This certainly is an important matter, and a good da'ss'er where even ;>. reasonable number of sheep are shorn, is indeed 'f si-tat use on any sheep station. Of rour.se, anions British shoep men no attempt whatever is -made al; classing all the inrmer docs being k, , separate his ewes from his wethers ;uid ho"s also baling separately all his cast floews cntts and. dead wool." But on a good big snoop .station, d.'»-siii;; is nn importiuit lnnttor. unci everybody nlteiupting the work should first of all go to ii. technical college and there \stirv. f,omethii\g about wool and its o,ualife. As alreadi indicated, practical men know the iin portance of separating, sny, the britcli portion from the .shoulder',' (ho former often being fo'ir to six count; coarser than the latter. ll«n» wo have a phcnonicuon which is well worth ccusidt-r----ing;. One would nnlunilly thiiik that the britch wool would be c(|iiiiily us fine as tho shoulder anil, the neck.' but every klh'pii on the face of the globe will show a difference in quality on the points named. Now, combing wool can be called anywhere" from 2 inches i.nd upwards in length in iiipjmros, and eny 31 inches in crossbred*: It. can b« said that, every sheep grows combing and doth ing wool. 1 lint: is, if the flt'fw is allowed to grow a full twelve moil!li,?. "ll' v.-e first deal with merinos, practically every part of tho fleece ran be combed, with the exception of 'ho f,lji.i).-fil briloh, l;ra.vv bellies and locks, though hore iu Mradfoixl, in pre-war days, if fllainovl piece* from the briich were at all decent id length, a discoloured top niw .frequently mail?, while- thousands of good bellies liavc also bet'ii ''salted in" with other portions.of the. fleece and conibod into a shovi. or average top. Of course the ienl opening for stained pieces, bellies, and locks i« the woollen trade, it being :• lso a fact Ihat; if merino combing wools «ie koes?ively dirty and faulty they are reserved for tho woollen industry, whora they must b« carbonised before being fit for the machines. Still, assure mj; that a short fluece shows a reasonable kflijih of staple;'as already indionied, if it is not excessively dirty, the woo! c?.n bo combed. In other wurds, the n«ok, back, shoulder, and sides of the elions (loco's avo all eligible for enmbing, it Ir.cshorfer ancl more wasty parts of the ileece which go into the woollen trade.

Decrease of Combinn Wool. Every man who lias gone to the London sales knows that on a fairly biy Australian station merino wool is iisuai\y classed into super, first, an<i ordiiiary combing wool. three classes lndicate the character of the wool in question. For instance, the lightest, best grown, and most attractive wool should form the super combing lot, rooil average wools constituting the first combing, while the heavier fleeces, are usiwlly thrown into the ordinary combing. Often the latter contains just as Rood wool as the first ■' lot, except that the ordinary combing is always heavier in condition ami a little more vasty. Kvery buyer knows this and values accordingly, "clean yield" forming- Hie basis on whieli as a rule his valuation, is inario, while a little allowance is also made for freedom from burv and other extraneous matter. These are all important details which naturally go towards establishing the manufacturing value of wool and determining the market price. Then, too, the neck portion ot the fleece is often baled separately, so is the broken, clothing, pieces, bellies, and locks. In fact, on good biff stations two descriptions are made, say, first and second necks, and likewise in every class, the dividing-line being made by the tlneser at the time of shearing, condition very largely being the standard. The reader will, therefore, see that it is a fine art in classing shorn fleeces, but like every other business expenenco 19 the best teachor, and having once learned the art of classing fleeces the work bcconiee comparatively easy if a man lias his wits about him and knows Ins job thoroughly.

Clothing Wools. We have already indicated briefly what constitutes clothing wools, these really being tho heavier and shorter stapled portions of the shorn fleece. So far the writer has had in view only merino wools, and these short clothing wools nro rightly separated from combing classes because as a rule they undergo a different treatment altogether* A real goad classer knows that clothing wools as a rule are finer than combing, these being shorter in staple, but usually four to six counts finer than tho longer combing wools. 01 course, on thn French principle these,can be combed, but as already indicated clothing wools in the first instance we're destined for use solely in the woollen trade, and •'luring the past twenty yours, there hus been increasing use made of tine clothing us well as the wasty pieces, bellies, and locks. Wo have already staled that if a lleece is very dirty mid wasty its n>ul homo is the woollen trade, , and 'all these wools falls naturally into the category of clothing, it being veiy seldom indeed that when wools haTC been carbonised they are combed, all theso as a rulo being used in the production of woollen fabrics. To the writer it is no wonder that there is to-day a surplus of clothing merinos and a shortage <W combing wools, and if those in charge of importation had advised Australian shippers to send good fleece wools Homo, there need not Jiavo been a surfeit, of supplies for the woollen trade and a scarcity for the worsted.