Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1910. WOOL AND SKIN SALES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10114, 8 October 1910, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1910. WOOL AND SKIN SALES.

The sales which take place at this season of the year are usually remarkable for the small quantity of wool, and the large volume of skins catalogued, and those whicli took place on Wednesday last under the auspices of-our local wool firms, were no exception to the .rule—in fact the number of sheep skins offered, about 8,000, constituted a record in the district. If anything was required'to confirm the reports that from time to time have appeared in these columns as to the heavy mortality which has occurred among sheep in this part of the Wairarapa during the winter and early spring months, it is the very largo proportion of "dead "skins" which wore marketed, particularly those from

hoggets. On several previous occasions attention lias been directed to the want of care and attention paid by farmers in saving skins and getting them up in the. best possible condition for market; but seemingly without much beneficial effect, for the majority of those displayed at • the last sales show no improvement whatever, and the state of some lots was anything but creditable, and as a result must-have entailed very considerable monetary loss to the owners. The remarks made by buyers wore frequently anything but complimentary. It is true the pi-ices realised on the whole must be considered hignty satisfactory when the state of the skins are taken into consideration, for in many instances the "pelts," in consequence of being exit in innumerable places, weather-beat-en, perished, and wrinkled up into half their normal size, were almost valueless, except for glue and size. Some trouble is being taken by the managers of technical schools to educate settlers and others into the best methods of getting up their wool for market. A further step might very well be taken, and the curriculum made to embrace the preparation of skins. The loss to the" Dominion through damaged hides and skins in twelve months is no mean item, and must run into thousands of pounds, and all for the want of » little care

and supervision. The ordinary farmer is somewhat prone to declaim about hard times, the woes of taxation, shearers' awards, etc., but to view the slovenly way in which many of them market such produce as is under reference, one would imagine money was no object to them. The mixed quality of the wool on the several skins is a marked feature in many of the parcels sent in for sale, rendering classification a very difficult process, to say nothing of the | loss in price. It is quite common to see skins the wool on which would range from 30' s to 50's quality sent in from one farm. The defects lend colour to the assertion that has often been made of late years, "that many of our wool clips are deteriorating in quantity, quality, and evenness of type." The frozen lamb trade may in a measure account for such a state of affairs, as it is well-known to be a common practice for many sheep men to use any breed of eAve to produce fat lambs. The most apt term to apply to such a system is 1 "mongrelising."