OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2759, 7 February 1910, Page 2

OUR YORKSHIRE LETTER.

THE CLASS OF -WOOL AMERICA BUYS. (From Our Special Correspondent.) BRADFORD, Doc. 24. There is really nothing very imnortanx in connection with the Colonial wool trade, hence I purpose to'-;lay devoting this letter principally to the class of English wool that America buys, it always being as well for readers everywhere interested in the law material to know what our cousins across the Atlantic are buying. During the past few years English wools have played a very prominent part in the trade of this country with the United States, and but for one excellent support given to most des cri],tions of Home-grown wools, a very different state of affairs would nave obtained. America has always been looked upon as our best, customer for domestic fleeces, and more than once have its buyers,pulled the chestnuts out of the fire. In 1907 the competition of American importers at several country fairs saw 1 some good prices forthcoming for medium to fino fleeces, and when, in 1908. markets were dominated by very slack conditions, and the slump had made a serious inroad upon prices, American buying led to considerable recovery; and I make bold to eay that when the present year finishes the amount of English wools America will have bought will exceed all previous records. These facts alone show how valuable is England’s American wool trade, and but for the important market values would have been on a very different level, and many a sheepformer would be mourning over lower wool prices. The United States cannot please anyone in this country over many of its. laws, but on the question of wool even the high, exorbitant and absurd duties cannot keep out of that market English-grown fleeces, and never will. QUANTITY BOUGHT.

Before proceeding to discuss the question proper, let me give the reader some intelligent conception of the quantity of Home-grown wool exported to the United States during recent years. To make this table still more complete, I also exhibit the quantity of foreign and colonial wool sent from this country to America, and the following are the particulars: — Foreign and Home-grown. colonial. Y’ear. lbs. lbs. 1904 26,060,400 60,454,200 1905 24,806,300 78,755,700 1906 18,971,400 63,967,800 1907 17,932,400 69,859,!u4 190 S 24.999,400 57,474,119 1909 *116,213,654

"Eleven months’ shipment only. I wish I had been able to give the figures referring to the eleven months’ export of Home-grown wools up to the end of November, but the Board of Trade returns make no distinction until the full detailed particulars are given in the annual statement published about the middle of each year. However, the monthly shipments from the Bradford Consular district offer a failcriterion of what is doing, ami up to the end of last November they beat all records. Wool amounting in value to £1.827,054 was shipped the next highest total being £1,783,255, in 1897, when large anticipatory shipments were sent across the Atlantic before the imposition of the Dinglcy Tariff, a “free-wool” tariff obtaining from 1895 to August 1, 1597, but oven that huge total has been exceeded this year under a taxation of off 1 per lb.

AMERICAN DUTIES ON WOOL. It should be known by every sheep breeder in the -world that American buyers cannot purchase every class of wool, not because it cannot be used across the Atlantic, but because, its fiscal arrangements will not allow of it being done. It may not be common, ]y 'known, but wools going into the United States are scheduled under t-hree heads, namely, Class 1, Class 11, and Class 111, and I have often wondered if the average reader has a clear knowledge of wliat is meant by these. Quoting from the official tariff schedule of the American Government, the following is a brief description of the three classes:—

Class I: That is to say, merino, mestiza, metz, or metis wools, or other wools of merino blood, immediate or remote, Down clothing wools, and wools of like character with any of the preceding. including Bagdad wool, China lambs’ wool, Castel Branco, Adrianople skin wool, or butcher’s'wool, and such as have been heretofore usually imported into the United States from Buenos Ayres, New Zealand, Australia, Cape of Good Hope, Russia, Great Britain, Canada, Egypt, Morocco, and elsewhere, and all wools not hereinafter included in Classes 11. and 111.

Calss II: That is to say, Leicester, Cotswold, Lincolnshire, Down combing wool, Canada long wools, o r other like combing wools of English blood, and usually known by the terms herein used, and also- the hair of the camel, Angora goat, alpaca, and other animals. Class III: That is to say Donskoi, native South America, Cordova, Valparaiso. native Smyrna, Russian camel’s hair, and all such wools of like character as have been heretofore usually imported into the United States from Turkey, Greece, Syria, and elsewhere, excepting "improved wools, here, inafter provided for. It will be seen from the above that, generally speaking, Class I. comprises merinos: Class 11. crossbreds; , and Class 111. low wools, which are mostly a mixture of wool and kemps, or dead hairs. Very large quantities of the two latter descriptions are grown in the United Kingdom and shipped across the Atlantic, all our different breeds of crossbreds being more or less sent, while Scotch Blackfaced, which goes under the head of carpet wools, is also exported in large weights. In the latter description the duty charged is a sliding one; that is, importers have to pay more in proportion to the cost of wool. U" to the beginning of September there was a great struggle between Bradford, Glasgow, and American houses to buy Blackfaced descriptions at under 6cl oeiylb, in order to get the wool in at what is known as low dutv rate. That means to say that

if a decent quality of Blaekfaccd wool can bo bought at, say, sgd per, lb. then it goes into the 'United States at 4 cents, or 2d per lb. duty, whereas, if it cost, in the first instance, Gd per lb. and upwards, then the. duty charged is 7 cents, or 3ld per lb., while if it contains not over 8 per cent of dirt the duty is Is 6d per lb. On Class 1., name*, lv merinos, the duty is 11 cents, or s£d per lb. ; on Class 111., as I have- already pointed out, it varies from 2d to 3=}d per lb., according to the first cost of the raw material. WHAT AMERICA WANTS.

'The- question naturally arises, what are the special classes of British wool which America wants? It can he said that United States importers buy almost everything from the strongest Lincolns to the finest Downs, it simply Icing a question with them of what is fashionable, and what wools are going into consumption. To begin with, they at times buy fair quantities of lustre wools, such a.s Lincoln, Nottingham, Yorkshire. All this year these wools have not enjoyed the popular favor that the less bright descriptions have, but their clay will come. Lincoln hogs and wethers, particularly the latter, are to-day the cheapest article on the market, including Devons. "When we come to demi-lustre wools such as Irish, Kents,, Norfolk halfbreds, Midland Counties halfbreds, and North hogs and wethers, then we enter, what 1 may call the American region, all these being bought and shipped in large quantities. These produce a nice worsted spun thread, and are largely used across the Atlantic. At the same time the prime favorites are Shropshire bogs and wethers, and wools of the Down class. During the last ten years hosiery wools have increased in popularity, and British farmers, where the country is suitable, cannot do better than maintain and increase their Down flocks. Hosiery wools, as they are called, enjov considerable popularity at the hands of both the Home, American, and Continental trades. Business everywhere, is good in these wools, and in the United States it literally booms. The fact is significant that Shropshire. Southdown. 'Wiltshire, Hampshire, and Oxford Down wools are all occupying to-day an exceedingly strong position, and with stocks bein. r so light there, is little fear of these depreciating in value. During the last few years men and women everywhere have taken to using larger quantities of' woollen under garments, while tho latest phase of sweaters being worn in jacket form by the gentler sex, has giver, a further fillip to these wools in all countries alike. The wools of Punta Arenas and the Falkland Islands are also very good for hosiery yarn spinning.

WSAHED V. UNWASHED WOOLS

Repeatedly has it been stated during the past summer that fewer English farmers are resorting to washing their sheen before shearing, and I unhesitatingly say this is a mistake. American buyers never purchase unwashed wools, aid if British slieepfarmors want to command the support of their best customer they had better continue the old-time practice. Owing entirely to the heavy duties they have to pay on English and coloniaf wool, American buyers cannot afford to purchase anything but the lightest conditioned parcels. The reader can see that they cannot afford to pay Gd per lb. on heavy earth and grease, and even when they are buying Australian merinos. New Zealand, and South American crossbreds they want the cleanest and the

LOOKING AHEAD

Can America be expected in the future to continue to buy Home and fcieign-grown ■wools? and I answer in the affirmative. United States manufacturers can no more do without these wools than they can do without coal to raise steam for their factories. The fact is significant that tlip. promised great prosperity of American sheep breeding under high protective duties lias never been realised, and never will. American sheep brooders were rcpeatedlv tokl that the Dinglov tariff rates would afford them adequate protection, and that they would be- able to grow all the wool their own manufacturers would noefl, but, somehow, America is buying more English and colonial wool than ever it did, and its own sheep stocks are nothing near so high as they once were. All that Home, colonial, and South American sheep breeders have to do is to look well to their flocks. The price of sheep lias fallen tremendously, due to the low values ruling for* mutton, but this is not the time to grow careless, for mutton will do dearer before cheaper. Wool is fairly high, lienee let flockmasters everywhere maintain their stocks for all tliev are worth, and by producing good, sound fleeces they will, in the future, command the best support that America can give.