WOOL DETERIORATION

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 59, Issue 72, 28 April 1930, Page 5

WOOL DETERIORATION

QUALITY 0F HAWKE'S BAY'S CROSSBRED CLIP. PROBLEM FOR, R0MNEY FL0CKMASTEIIS. WAS RECENT CRITICISM TOO STRJLNGENT?. Comparatively recently . New Zealand wool circles were set aflutter by some exceedingly stern criticism of the character of New Zealand Romney wool by an eminent English authority. This gentleman, if "Who's "Who" is to believed, certainly inust be given the eredit of knowing what he is talking about, and his remarks were not of the most complimentarv kind. When I read them I could not help wondering what those hardy pioneers who first introduced tlie marshland sheep into the Dominion would have said had the remarks been addressed to them. Yet while the criticism did appear a trifie too stringent — and there is a possibility that later and fuller reports will reveal a qualification of the brief cabled version — there can be no doubt that there is room for criticism in the deterioration of New Zealand's Romney crossbred wool during the course of a number of years. Hawke's Bay is recognised as a stronghold of the Romney-Lincoln cross, in fact the verv large percentage of the sheep in the province are of this breed. The province has, in the pasb, been noted for the quality of its fleece wool, but the buyers at this year's Napier saies had quite a lot to say in criticism of the fleece wool that was offered from the province this season. One and all seemed to agree that the percentage of hair was on the increase instead of the decrease. One buyer put forward the tlieor.y _ to me that potash in top-dressing niight be held responsible in some instances, but this idea does not seem to be taken seriously by those who should know. Dominion woolgrowers, or rather those who favour the Romney or Romney crossbred class, are. I think, fully conversant with the fact that Romney wool, as grown in the Dominion to-day is possessed of cliaracteristics which it would be better without and it is the aim of every good flockmaster to work ont all faults which might cause the fleece to be undesirable to the over^ seas buyer. A writer in a farming journal commenting on this subject states _ that the Romney ram was originally introduced into the Dominion to add sturdiness to flocks that had become more Lincoln than Merino after many years of the long woolled sire and adds that unfortunately the first attention of the breeder was directed to the production of fine, soft, bright wool, without consideration of the true breed type of fleece and without the least thought of the constitution of the animal. Whatever may have been the original idea in introducing the Romney, the fact remains that to-dav _it_ is the dominant breed in the Dominion flocks. In eliminating the faults of the Dominion hred article, flockmasters _wijl be faced with no easy task, but it is one to which they are applying themselves with keenness, and concern, sharpened by the knowledge that only in pleasing the overseas hiiyer and supplying a fleece to meet his requirements can they expect to hold the market. ^