The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-06-19
WOOL PRICES RULE FIRM
They May Go as High as 10 or 20
Cents This Season.
WOOL MEN PROSPEROUS
For That Reason They Are Not Inclined
to Sell for Anything They Can Get.
So That the, Conditions
Are Bullish.

Great Falls, June lS.-Ine wool sed-
son is opening and, as if to recompense
them for their heavy loss in sheep ana
lambs this spring, the woolgrowers IRE
lokely to get pretty heavy price Tor
their wool this season. AS yet bat a
few bags of the staple have reached
this town, but shearing is practically
only commenced throughout all North
ern Montana, and another week will
pass before the receipts begin to
amount to much. The buyers also have
not arrived in force, although usually
the season is at it's height by the
Fourth of July.
From all the data which can now be
gathered prices well range from IA
cents upward. Some clips may reach
20 cents or a fraction more. 1t is re-
ported from Billings that buyers there
are offering IA cents for the wool before
shearing, and the wool of the northern
part of the state not only fetches
higher price at this market as a rule,
but it also grades a trif1e higher in
quality.
This year it should be exceptionally
high-grade. for there has been enough
rain during the past two months to
wash it clean and light and exclude
all pretense for heavy discounts be-
cause of grease and dirt. Another fac
tor which will tend toward higher
prices is the excellent financial condi-
ton of the woolgrowers and a general
feeling of hope which permeates the
class. With a succession of good years
following upon the financial depression
of 1898, they have been able to get
themselves into a position where they
are more or less independent of the
banks and of buyers, so that If they
choose to carry their product for few
months they can do so without any too
great anxiety.
That will keep them from throwing
their clip at buyers heads and it will
stimulate a proportionate anxiety to
purchase on the part of the buyers. The
latter gentlemen, in addition to being
pleasant, jolly fellows, to whom it is
a pleasure to come to town to liven
things up a bit, are not here for the i'm
provement of their physical condition,
but to get some bags for the houses
which they represent buying as low as
they can, and a little independence on
the part of the grower helps out the
price amazingly. Even the transporta-
tion men this year are quoted as pre-
dieting Decent wool, and while they
ARE not for a moment to be charged
with standing in with the buyers it
remains a fact that quick sales and
prompt shipments help their business
out. .t
The woolgrowers themselves are pre-
dieting sales as high as 10 and 20 cents,
and some of them evidently believe
that the market will almost average
that price. Two clips already sold in
Northern Montana, although not the
largest by any means, tend to confirm
this prediction. Bourne & Hamilton, in
Choteau county, are said to have sold
their clips for 1874 cents. This clip
usually ranks among the best of those
grown in the extreme northern part of
the state being light, fine fleece of
long staple and, in the absence of any
details concerning the sale other than
the price, it would indicate that prices
were going to rule still higher and that
some of the clips will bring at least 90
cents. The other sale is of the Henry
w. Davis clip at Saco at Is cents before
it was sheared, the wool to be delivered
at Saco. This clip has usually run at
about the average price sold at Fort
Benton, where prices have always been
lower than in this city.
The amount to be marketed at this
point is impossible of estimation at
this time. Last year heavy sales of
mutton sheep and the removal from the
state made it seem probable that the
total Great Falls market for 1898 would
be a trlf1e below the market for 1897.
Then heavy spring rains had decreased
the total weight very materially and
that would also make the showing less
in figures. At the close of the season
1t was found that the total for 1898 was
slightly above the preceding season.
This was accounted for by the increase
in the flocks and the fact that this mar
ket had attracted some clips which had
not come here in 1897. These things con-
tribute to the present difficulty in esti-
mating the receipts. There have not
been SO many heavy sales reported this
season as last while the decrease in
weight by reason of rains ought to be
about the same.
Fleeces may have suffered from bad
wintering and some clips may not come
to this market this year for various
reasons, but on the whole it would an
pear likely that in the absence of the
unexpected there ought to be a material
Increase over $685.