WOOL SORTING AND CLASSING.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2534, 22 June 1909, Page 5

WOOL SORTING AND CLASSING.

TECH AI CAL EDUCATION

Among the subjects that are be taught in the Napier Technical ecL and .at various centres throughout district there is one, wool sorting ; classing, of special value to those gaged in or connected with paste pursuits (says the Hawke’s I Herald). Ihe instructor is Mr. Wood, a gent.eman of expert ka ledge and long experience, and un his tuition the students are maki satisfactory progress. These etude number about 100. of whom nearh dozen attend the Napier school tv, a week, and they are being careft trained in classing and sorting acce ing to quality, condition and sou. ness. It is proposed to held acc petition among the students, open them only, at the next show of - Hawke’s Bay Agricultural and Paste Society. Such a contest weu.d cert? ly prove of great interest, and wo, add another- to the many attract features of the show.

“The subjects I deal with,” said 2 Wood in conversation with one of ■ Napier “Herald” representatives, “ wool fibre and growth, composition wool, quality, soundness and charact istics of wool, crimps and serratk of the fibre, etc. The object of i classes is to impart instruction tl will be of value io the small farmers well as to the big holders. The stade: give practical demonstrations of th work, and are all very much mteresl in it. All the wool is classed a separated according to Bradford sp ning counts. lam making a spec line of dealing with small farmers 5 lo as the small farmers are by no met exempt from the necessity of pavi attention to the proper get-up of th wool. In fact, owing to the smalm of their clips, they are liable to suf more, in comoarison, than the lai holders. Despite this fact, many;?, mens’ lots are sent- to market Jn deplorable state, with the inevita; result of great loss to the owner, » when remonstrated with has mwa certain excuses to make. Among -La; excuses was the statement, ‘We do r know liow to do the work proper! and another excuse, heard rrom o end of the Dominion to the other, u that it did not pay to skirt the sm lots . Now. this can be easily remedi by attending our technical classes, wh are fairly numerous and are doing vast amount of good. There are ma farmers who simply follow the sa? lines as their neighbors in prepan their wool, without taking into a sideration whether their wool is of i same quality, condition and color his own. There might be different which the ordinary- farmer cannot o tino-uish, but which might mean difference of Id per lb to the buyer, is not advocated that skilled class* should do the work of classing sm clips, but that the grower should qus fy himself to place his wool on t market in as good a condition as 3 other commodities. The worst fib should be taken back, also the bell and stains. When more sorts than o are to be put into a bale, they shot be put in separately and not bund; together., This applies to all woo very few‘people in the manufacturr line care to buy mixed bales, so tb are left to local dealers and scoure at a great reduction to the g rov y Care should be taken to keep out d and dags, and the fleeces sliotnd r be b'cund with binder twine or flax, great habit is to place oddments chaff bags without- first shaking t bao-s . This is a very prevalent taa but I am sure if tlie growers knew wt a trouble it is to get tlie chaff out the wool the practice would soon cea; If possible the box press should used; it is a great- improvement the old spade-pressing method makes the bales neater,, tidier and me uniform, which shows that some ce has been taken. The buyer is abu man, but lie lias time to see untidy a and he generally passes them u>. estimate "that the small farmers are 1 in or thousands of pounds every seas through ignorance of how properly prepare their wool for maiket.