Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-15

as much as 80 and 35 cents. There are
certain brands of wool, known by the
names of their owners, which always bring
high prices. l have before me a list of
some of the greasy wool sales OF last year,
showing that certain buyers got as much
as cents a pound more than the ordinary
market rates. There is also a difference in
the price according to what part of the
sheep the wool comes from. Every sheep
is divided up into sections, and after the
goes into one place, that from the bellies
into another, and so on, a dozen classical
lions being made from the same sheep.
The Sydney Wool Exchange.
Sydney has it's wool exchange, where all
the wool auctions are held. The exchange
is situated near the wharves in the heart
of the city. 1t is long, narrow room,
much like chapel, with auctioneer' s
desk like pulpit in end of it. The
various wholesale dealers or commission
merchants are allotted different days on
which they may auction off their stock, and
on those days the buyers come to bid.
Gable reports are received as to the prices
in the great wool markets over the world,
and the excitement rises and falls with the
quotations. The commission merchants are
only interested in getting much they
can for their customers, and the wool often
brings more than it is worth After it is
sold the commission man delivers it to the
Colleges for Wool Men.
Here in Australia the government has
colleges for wool students. A branch of
the technical schools is devoted to night
classes for sheep breeders and wool dealers.
In these schools the students are taught all
about sheep The different breeds ex-
hibited and their qualities pointed out. The
students have to grade and classify wool,
and hundreds of bales from the station are
supplied to the school by wool dealers for
this purpose. Each student wears an apron
and overalls to keep the greasy stuff
from Soilng his clothes while he goes
through the bales picking out the
good and bad wool and sorting it ac-
cording to quality. He is taught how to
shear sheep and how to scour wool. He Is
taken by the teachers into the wool stores
ton as to feeding, shipping and marketing.
There is regular profession Of wool
sorting in Australia, and the man who
knows all about wool and sheep can get a
high salary manager or expert Sup
pose a Squatter has 100000 sheep and can
add one pound per sheep to his crop of
wool, the difference is 100000 pounds per
annum, which means a fortune 1t is so
with the men owning smaller f1ocks, and
hence the wool and sheep experts are sure
of good wages
Men from the wooden mills of England
are brought out here for this purpose and
every effort is made to produce the highest
priced wool.
Origin of Australian Sheep.
l had talk as to the growth of Aus
time squatters, a man who has been rails
ing sheep for fifty years and who has now
about 10000 on two different stations
Said he: We have fewer sheep in Australia
today than we had ten years ago. Here in
New South Wales had more than co.
100000 in 1891, and now we have just about
100000. We have lost 20,GOO,OOO by the
drought and overStocking, and have now
just about what we can easily feed l can
remember the time when there were only
6,0oo,ooo sheep in this colony. Then all the
sheep were herded. Now they are kept in
paddocks, fenced with wire, and it takes
fewer shepherds and the cost is much less"
where did your first sheep come from?'
1 asked.
They were brought over by the con-
vcts," was the reply. when Captain
Philip came here in 17ss he brought TWEEN
ty-nine sheep and other live stock. These
sheep did very we'll and it was a few years
after that that Captain Macarthur started
the idea of making a sheep country Of
Australia. Macarthur a military man
with a scientific bent. He had a farm
near sydney and experimental in crossing
some East Indian rams and Irish ewes, and
as a result produced wool better than that
of either of the ancestors. He then eX
perimented with the Merinos. You know
perhaps, that up to the present century
the finest wool came from Spain, which
had always been noted as a sheep-breed-
ing country. The Spanish had large flocks
of Merinos. and the government forbade
their expectation In order to keep the wool
trade in Spain. The dealers Of that time
thought that good wool could be grown
ncwheer else than in Spain, and the Span
ish wool consequently brought the highest
prices.
Captain Macarthur imported several
Merino sheep from the Cape of Good Hope,
and he also got some from the flock Of
King George III of England, who had
originally secured them from the King of
Spain.
THE English government gave Macar-
thur a grant of 10000 acres of land to try
his experiment. and In a short time he
proved that Australia could produce as
good sheep as Spain and that its wool was
equally fine. 1t was long before the wool
expectations amounted to much. but the
f1ocks steadily increased and the character
Of the wool improved, until now we raise
more wool and better wool than any other
country. We are, l think, furnishing at
least one-ffth Of all the wool raised in the
world today"
FRANK G. CARPENTER.