WOOL-CLASSING INSTRUCTION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10056, 2 August 1910, Page 4

WOOL-CLASSING INSTRUCTION.

The public generally are not conversant with the valuable work in the shape of instruction in woo!-clas3ing that is being carried on in this district under the auspices or the Technical School authorities. Mr Sara Wood, as instructor, is doiDg good work and as a result of the information and practical demonstrators given by him a valuable addition is made to our staple industry. Thiß season classes have been held at Masterton, Pahiatua, and Mangamahoe, and at various centres in Hawke's Bay, including Te Aute College. Over two hundred and fifty pupils are now receiving instruction, and the season will continue until the first week in September. The attendance has been very regular, and residents in the smpller centres outside the towns are clamorous for instruction. This is not to be wondeied at when the bulk of the students, all practical farmers, are now able to class their own wool, with the result as reported to the instructor, that they have secured a Car larger return for their product than under the old system. One student says that the effect of this wool-classing instruction has enabled him to "get-up" his wool scientifically, according to mprket requirements, thereby enabling him to secure much better returns, The syllabus is a very broad one, and includes lectures on the mode and growth of the wool fibre; wool-classing from a large to a small farmer's clip; faults in wool—their causes and ; remedies; work in the shed—how to be conducted; qualities of wool with the meaning and use of "counts"; rolling and skirting of the fleeces; pressing and branding. In further advanced stages the yields of wool are dealt with, and an explanation is given of the terms "tops," "noils," and "waste." As the classes are now arranged many farmers living at a distance from the centres have not been able to avail themselves of the benefit of the instruction given, owing to so much of the time of the instuctor being taken up in attending to various classes outside the Wairarapa district. It would be wise, therefore, as soon as the shearing season is over, to make immediate with the Technical authorities to secure the services of the instructor in the more remote parts of the Masterton district.