THE CLASSING OF WOOL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10293, 22 July 1911, Page 5

THE CLASSING OF WOOL.

BY THE CHART SYSTEM. In conver ation with a representative of the Wairarapa Age on Friday, Mr W. A. "McNaught, wool specialist, of Duncdin. gave some interesting information concerning his method of classing wool by chart. * Mr. McNaught asserted that the present system of technical education wais not made practical enough to the grower himself, who should have the knowledge at hand. They also dealt with too many sorts in their technical instruction, and it did not go deep enough for the growers to know what the buyer wanted. Under the chart instruction they would get a uniform basis, which would be to the ultima to advantage of the individual growers and the whole Dominion. He bad been years working the system out, and he assured farmers that it place 1 every man on an equal footing v"th the expert, who knew liow to .sort iiis wool to suit th"> manufacturers' buyers. A boy of fourteen, Who s'udieel the chart for say, 24 hours, would know what to do with his father's wool quite as well as the trained Tr°->. Mr McNaught then went on to explain the chart, which by means of photographs and printed instructions show - ed how tc skirt on a standard basis, and how to roll the fleece to show the best wool to ;■ 'lvantTge, so that the expert bujers would see all the good points at a glance. Buyers were expert and the growers v.-rr? business men, and this had to l>c considered. Under the present system, in dealing with small flocks, a lot -was left to the storeman's discretion in sorting up the bales, and one man's good bale might he sacrificed to make ,un the price r or another man's three. the chart system everything would be so uniform that the best bales would go together, and there would be no loss to the small grower. This system was adrpted in Australia, United States and the Argentine, where charts were sold at three guineas and over, whereas the price in New Zealand was only 40s. Other interesting charts p/ovided with the system, gave technical matter boiled down about the fibre, the properties of the wool, the influence of the temperature on fleeces, the effect of pastures on fibre, the characteristics of wool,'what become-, of the wool, the manufacturing process, etc. Speaking of dips, he said much of the fibre in the wool was destroyed by farmers through the misuse of arsenic dip. If farmers used carbolic dip only, twice a year, they would see the difference of the quality of the wool for manufacturing purposes. They could use the carbolic dip at any strength without injuring the fibre, whereas with arsenic it required careful handling. A blackboard chart gave an excellent idea af the spinning counts of the wool of various breeds, and the way in which two sorts j if of the same count, could be used together to advantage. No sheep dip on earth would make wool grow, it would clear the outer layer and allow free action to the bulb, but what made the wool grow was what they put inside the sheep. If farmers wished to secure his iservioes for free lectures, they would have to show their intere&t by purchasing a chart at 40s. This was all he asked. Other countries, particularly South Africa, were going into for system strongly, and if we wished to keep up our flag in this Dominion by getting the best possibly price for our wool, the small grower would have to do something +o improve his knowledge of how to class and prepare his wool for the market.