Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1899-07-20
WOOL GROW ING IN The WEST
Kansas City Gaining Steadily As a
Wool Market.
Big Prices This Season and An Unusually
Heavy Business Here-Making Wool
Into Clothes Nearer the Source
of Supply.
kansas City Starr

The shortage in the worlds supply of
fine and fine medium woods has created
an activity in those commodities which
has gradually forced prices up until they
are only 5 to 10 cents lower than during
the season of '9s long known as the
banner year of the sheep-raising and
wool growing industry in this country.
The movement locally is heavier than
during any previous year. One dealer
will handle we two million pounds OF
wool before the season closes.
M. Lyons says local dealers are hand
ling more and more wool every year.
Kansas City, as a wool market, is a big
benefit to the growers, for the nearer
the market the better are their interests.
Competition among the buyers has been
keen throughout all the Western states.
They have iocked from one producing
section to another.
A HEAVY WOOL BUYER HERE.
M. Harris of the firm Of B. Harris &
Co., the largest wool firm in st. Louis,
was in the city yesterday on his way to
Montana. He says that since the season
opened May l prices have advanced S5
per cent and that before it closes prices
will be fully 40 per cent higher than at
the opening. His firm completed last
week one Of the largest single shipments
of wool ever made. 1t consisted OF IA
millions Of pounds, or about seventy-flve
carloads of woods, and was made from
De Soto Springs, Idaho, to St. Louis.
The freight on the shipment alone cost
$25, 900. Mr.. Harris says that Eastern
dealers and manufacturers are buying
heavier than usual. Sales already this
year amount to 80 millions OF pounds
more than at this time last year. Wool
is closer sold-that is, has passed from
growers to dealers hands-than was
ever known before so early in the season.
The Montana clip is about all that is
| not disposed of at present and forty to
fifty buyers from all over the country
| are congregated at Great Falls, Billings,
! Big Timber, Fort Benton, Glendive and
Miles City, the six leading centers in
that state from which the wool is shipped.
Montana and Utah are considered the
two largest wool producing states in this
country although Idaho is rapidly COM
ing to the front. Kansas City buyers
secure the bulk of their purchases from
growers in Colorado and New Mexico.
Years ago Missouri and Kansas produced
large quantities of wool, but the locks
have been driven farther and farther
West and now the wool produced near
by cuts little figure in the years supply.
Raw wool is divided into several grades,
according to the tineness OF its texture.
What is designated as fine wool is the
fleece from straight Merino sheep; fine
medium comes from Merino crossed with
some inferior grade; medium from Shrop-
shire and Southdown, and coarse wool,
from either full blooded Cotswool or
full blooded Mexican sheep. Owners of
Western ranges are continually improv-
ing the grades of their sheep and the
change is noticeable by the improved
quality of the wool. Fifteen years ago
Is per cent of the Wool from Colorado
and New Mexico graded as coarse wool
suitable only for the manufacture OF
carpets; to-day no more than S per cent
grades as coarse wool. Kansas wool is
inferior to Missouri grown, because it
contains more dirt. The alkali in the
soil of many sections of the state is also
a disadvantage, as it tends to weaken
the fiber OF the WOOL.
woOLEN MILLS IN THE WEST.
While nearly all the great manu-
facturers of wooden goods are in the
East, the advisability of placing mills in
the large Western cities nearer the
source of supply is a question which is
more and more claiming the attention
of capitalists and mill owners, A few
years age lack of Western capital was
one of the leading difficulties, but at
present, with money easy at nearly all
points and especially among the farming
communities of the West, such an
obstacle could be easily overcome. La
Dor is said to be cheaper in the Eastern
cities and lack of skilled labor here
would be a disadvantage. With the
cotton mills of the South competing
strongly with those of New England,
and with the successful approach, nearer
and nearer, of the shoe and manu-
featured leather industries, there is
reason to believe that the time is not
far distant when wooden clothes worn in