OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2478, 17 April 1909, Page 2

OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

WHAT IS CROSSBRED WOOL. (From Our Own Correspondent.) * BRADFORD, March 5. Nobody need be told at this time of the day that there is a great variety of qualities in wool, and that diversified needs of manufacturers can easily be supplied. , In this respect there is a great change, old wool men, in particular, delighting to speak of those days when hardly a bale of Colonial crossbred was. to be met with in any series of London sales. But such, in no sense,, obtains to-day, for the world’s production of wool is about evenly distributed between merinos and crossbreds. This shows at once what a great and important! change has come over the character of wool supplies, and with the great outlet that has been found for frozen mutton, there is no likelihood whatever of either Australasia or the Argentine going back to breeding exclusively merino sheep-.. Neither docs the trade desire such a course of action, for, with the increasing supplies of crossbred wool, equally as big' and important an outlet has been found for the goods manufactured from these wools. However, before proceeding to deal with the subject of what is meant by crossbred wool let me show what proportion of merino and crossbred wool is being produced in Australasia and the! River Plate. The following are reliable figures showing the imports for the season in millions pounds of clean wool:

With the multiplication of qualities, the trade has found it necessary to adopt a kind of dividing line, and the wools of the world, broadly speaking, are classed under two heads, namely, merinos and crossbreds. Anything ranging from 60’s and upwards under the category of merinos, and everything below 60’s is reckoned in the trade as crossbreds. Of course, the dividing line is a Somewhat near one, for what some men will call 60’s quality others will call 58’s, or more often Strong 60’3 There is to-day being grown an essentially merino sheep whcse wool cannot be called more than 60’s if that, but that wool is of a most useful character, and is largely availed of-for the production of long warp 60’s tops. In the majority of cases this wool id mixed or blended with other wools a trifle finer, and in that way a very respectable and saleable top is obtained. At the samel time it may be said that a bare 60’s is a good 58’s, but an essentially 58’s cannot be called a merino wool. Now crossbreds really began at this count, and range all the way/ down to 28’s. The reader will therefore see that crossbred wools cover a very wide field, hence it is customary i:\ the trade to subdivide these into hre© heads, namely, coarse, medium, and fine crossbreds. This the trade has found to be a very useful proceeding -and serves a very good purpose. In the case of coarse crossbreds anything below 36’s is really English, but is broadly understood to come under the category of crossbred, though in the trade the term crossbred is merely applied to Colonial and Riven Plate fleeces that have descended from the English sire. This has grown to be a collossal trade, and because of that fact the numerous qualities that are produced come under the designation of coarse, medium, and. fine. Really speaking coarse descriptions range from 36’s to 40’s quality, and some would include 44’s. Medium crossbreds comprise wool with a spinning count of from 44’s to 40’s qualitv, and then fine: includes from 50’s to 58’s, which is usually halfbred wools, or really the . first dross between a merino ewe and an English mutton sire. This gives the reader a very comprehensive idea of the meaning of the word crossbred wool, or rather what qualities are found in that category. If one wants the real dictionary meaning of the word crossbred, then it is the product from parents of different breeds, but tor all that, the wool resulting from this line of action is good, sound and useful. Perhaps some reader is now" asking himself the question, what is the actual meaning of the term 40’s, 46’s, 56’s, and 60’s quality ol wool, for experience has found tbatothere are very few wool growers indeed who can tell one quality from another. By 40’s quality is meant that the wool in question will spin 40 hanks of- yarn, each hank measuring 560 yards, or . 22,400 yards .to the pound. This may seem a long length, and no doubt it is; but if the wool is well-grown, of good length, and sound, a clean pound weight of top, i.e. combed wool, should produce when spun the number of. yards already indicated. In the case of 60’s quality,- the real meaning is that for every clean pound of top there can be spun into a yarn or thread 60 times 560, or say 33,600 yards of material. The reader will therefore see that no-matter what may be the count of crossbred or merino wool in. question, the method of guaging the quality is by the standard already outlined. It is impossible to show by mere words any man what is 40’s or 50’s wool, although if anyone interested in the trade who cannot tell one quality from -another will only take the trouble to get together a dozen samples, draw out one staple from each, lay them on a board side by side,, he will then see a vast deference in the fineness of the fibre, and if be starts with a full bred crossbred, or say Lincoln, he is certain to have 36’s or.4o’s, a Leicester should run-i pm 40’s to 44’s, a Romney'64’s to 48’s, while the first cross between any of these breeds with a merino ewe will produpe halfbred wool ranging from 50’s to 56’s quality. At every woolgrowing centre in®the . colonies, South • Africa, and the River Plate, there shopld bo in the public library a case showing the various standard qualities of wool, and these could then be always consiilted by anyone wanting to gain an intelTigent conception of the wool trade. Til crossbred wools theve is a most useful article, and with the wants of the world vastly increasing, it is hard to see how they could be supplied without the wide range of qual-. Ties being prodfttsM that we see to-day. Manufacturers, this last- ten years, have found out new and better methods of handling these wools, and producing as they do some high-class and saleable fabrics, their ued is fully assured ior the future. /

Estimated. Proportion of crosstotal merino bred bred 1903 556 268 288 51.8 per cent. 1904 509 244 262 51.8 per cent. 1905 553 281 272 49.2 per cent. 1906 596 317 297 46.8 per cent. 1907 646 355 291 40.0 per cent. 190S 632 337 295 46.7 per cent.