H.—29,

a photomicrograph of a Floxalan fibre alongside a wool fibre, which showed a surface scale structure almost identically the same.' Fortunately for the world's sheep-farmers, the scientists have not yet been able to imitate the fundamental and very complex internal structure of the wool fibre or its precise chemical make-up ; yet, although these may seem tasks of insuperable difficulty, who is to say that they will not one day be accomplished. " In the light of the above facts, it behoves us in New Zealand to do with our wool what we have done with our other primary products —to build up a reputation for quality and uniformity, for, after all, apart from cheapness, it is mainly on the score of being uniform standardized article that the synthetic fibre is sought after by the manufacturer. In this respect wool lags a long way behind our other products and there is still plenty of scope for improvement in the get-up and preparation of our national clip for market. Admittedly much may yet be done in the way of improving our wool by the use of better rams and more intelligent mating and culling, and also by a further research work, but, leaving all this out of account for a moment, there could still be wrought a great improvement by the application of present knowledge and by putting into general practice the methods now employed by the most efficient farmers only. Year after year educational work and propaganda have been undertaken by this Department and by other bodies such as the agricultural colleges, and there has doubtless been some response, but a visit to any wool-store will show that the goal has not yet been reached. There is still too much evidence of clips, carelessly or inadequately prepared, sent to the store unskirted and often poorly classed, sometimes with no attempt at proper classing at any stage. The owners of these clips will tell you that classing does not pay and that they can get just as much for their unclassed wool as can their neighbours after classing. With few exceptions this is a fallacy, and the men making the statement are making direct comparisons where no direct comparisons are justifiable, on account of variations in yield, length, soundness, and other factors vitally concerning the buyer and the manufacturer, but blissfully ignored by the farmer in question. There is no need here to go to any great lengths to prove that proper classing does pay, except to point out two salient facts —viz., the excellent returns always secured on binned wool properly prepared by any reputable wool-broker, and also the existence of speculators who year after year make a living by buying up unclassed clips, preparing them properly for market, and then reselling at a profit, a profit which should rightly have gone into the grower's pocket. " A word might also be mentioned hero about the practice of ' false packing.' Although genuine cases are fortunately comparatively rare, there are still quite a number of instances each year where bales might be said to be irregularly packed. The grower may not have included a few inferior fleeces in an otherwise good bale with any intent to deceive, but the fact nevertheless remains that should a buyer find one of these inferior fleeces his suspicions are immediately aroused, and he either does not buy or else adjusts his price accordingly to safeguard himself. As far as the grower is concerned, it is much easier to maintain a good reputation than to live down even one instance of this sort, which is likely to be noted by not one buyer but many. " Small clips do not lend themselves to proper classing, but these and also oddments from larger clips can be adequately dealt with either by binning or by sorting, this latter process being one which, although comparatively new to New Zealand, is steadily on the increase. Generally speaking, interlotting —the fate of small lines of wool sent to the broker without definite instructions—is very much of a gamble, and is not a practice to be encouraged. It means the grouping together of bales of wool of a similar type (as against fleeces in the case of binning) from different owners for disposal as a single lot. It is obvious that some will profit at the expense of others, and although this service costs the grower nothing, he usually finds it better in the long-run to pay the extra charge to have his wool properly binned by a firm of repute. It is gratifying to note that binning is still on the increase, and in one particular wool store in a district where there are many small mixed clips to be handled the proportion of binned wool has reached almost 75 per cent, of all the wool handled by the store. In other stores and other districts, however —particularly in such districts as the Waikato, where wool is often a secondary consideration to lamb —there is still plenty of room for a big increase in this desirable practice. Actually binning or pooling, or grouping as it is sometimes called, could be used profitably on a much larger scale than it is to-day, and it is safe to say that it is virtually the only satisfactory method (apart from sorting) of dealing with many small and mixed clips. In the postwar period we had an excellent illustration of the very successful operation of this process on a gigantic scale under the B.A.W.R.A. scheme for the disposal of some 2,600,000 bales of wool left over from the ' commandeer' period. "It is usually pretty well impossible to give any statement of general application to the whole of the New Zealand wool-clip, because conditions vary so much from one district to another. However, it is safe to say that, with the exception of some of the Auckland wools, length was generally much better this season, and there were far more shafty well-grown " preparing " types offering. The exception in the case of Auckland was due to the disastrous facial-eczema outbreak which affected so many sheep in the autumn of 1938. The check received by these sheep was plainly shown in the wool as a bad break, and although the wool grown prior to their illness was sound and attractive that grown afterwards was thin and tender. In the cases of hill-country flocks unaffected by the trouble the wool was well up to usual standards. In most other districts, with the exception of some of the hogget wool and some of the Otago wools (due to the severe winter), the bulk of the clip was very satisfactory as regards soundness. " Condition varied from generally about the average to a little more than usual in the Wellington district, and somewhat lighter than usual in the back country of Canterbury. Colour was good practically throughout, and definitely better than last year. Some of the late-shorn clips showed a fair amount of dust, such as those from Marlborough and Canterbury, due to the dry summer, but

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