DIRTY WOOL.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 1, Issue 48, 2 December 1867, Page 299

DIRTY WOOL.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE HAWKE’S BAY TIMES.

SlB, —The interesting article published by you in a recent number, headed “Shearing the Shearers” was read by me with much pleasure, not- only from the facts disclosed concerning the social state of an. important class of laborers, but from a rather incidental paragraph relative to the comparative value of washed and unwashed wool. The facts therebrought forward are indeed of a striking character % and commend themselves to the serious consideration of all who are in any degree .wool-producers. The exporter of unwashed wool has, as is truly observed, to pay for the carriage of dirt at the same . rate as for that of wool, and not only loses caste . himself in the wool market, but helps to give a bad character to the district from which his wool is shipped. From time to time you have given vs accounts of the methods practised by Australian wool growers for washing their fleeces £ which seem very complicated ; and with all their arrangements. ; for spouting and dipping,—their hot and cold baths, . —-present so formidable an obstacle to the small . dock-owners that if is not much wonder that they ship dirty wool rather than undergo so much trouble. But, in this Colony, no such extreme at*rangements are necessary ; and as it only necessary . to drive the sheep two or three times through a river a day or two previous to shearing, and- take ordinary care of them until that time, it does seem strange that axy wool should be shipped from these- - partsfn the grease. I do.not suppose that any of our wool is quite so bad as that mentioned, which sold for per lb. in Melbourne,-but there is small doubf that much-of it sells at'from twenty to fifty per cent, less than it would if washed in the simple way above noted.—l am, §rc., A SJuTTLER. ' •’ 22nd November, 1867.