Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1905-05-26
WOOL GOES SKYWARD
Growers Near Salem Holding for 80
Cents With Bright Prospects
of Getting 1t.

Just now king Wool" is on the
boards, and he is attracting wide
spread attention and creating no little
excitement. Last week the market for
good valley wool was quoted at rs
cents, with no selling except for a few
hundred fleeces, which passed into the
hands of speculators. The price took
one jump and landed upon the 27-cent
mark the first bound. From that
point it has been advancing steadily
by degrees until it looks as though
the SO-cent milepost would soon heave
in view on the mercantile horizon.
The wool growers Of the valley have
organized pools on their clips, and in
every instance where they have dis
posed of it, it is at an advanced
margin over the previous sale. No
less than three pools have been sold
during the past week, the prices of
which range from 27S to 2SB. The
first of these pools was that of the Scio
growers, who disposed of 26OO fleeces,
aggregating 1920 pounds, at 27B
cents; next came the Silverton pool of
100 feeces, or 1890 pounds, at 271
cents, and Saturday the Sublimity
pool of 1900 fleeces, or 1O,1OO pounds,
at 26B cents. This latter is the highest
price known to have been paid for
wool in the valley this year. Not to
be outdone in this respect the wool
growers of the near vicinity of Salem,
in the brief space Of few hours
Saturday afternoon, signed an agree
ment promising to hold their product
for 80 cents. This pool was engineered
and effected by Henry Vandevort of
Salem, who started out after dinner
and secured the signatures of growers
representing an aggregate of over
220O feeces to an agreement to hold
for that figure, and he says that his
work will not be complete until he will
have secured about 5000 fleeces, aggre-
eating 21, 900 pounds, which practically
represents what remains Of the unsold
wool product of this section of the
valley. Mr., Vandevort feels certain
that they will realize the price de-
manded on or before the first of June, |
and he is satisfied thatthe market will
go as high as 35 cents before the sup
ply in the growers hands is exhausted.
There are number of reasons
given for the steady and strong ad-
vance in the price of wool this season,
principal ofwhich is a shortage of the
supply over the steadily increasing
demand. Those who are in a position
to know state that the demand for
wool products has been increasing
each year, while the supply
has increased some, but not sufficiently
to keep pace with the demand, conse-
quently and naturally, it has finally
come to the stage where the surplus
stock has been almost entirely ex-
hausted and the manufacturers find |
themselves barren of stock, while the
marketable supply from the spring
clip will not be enough to meet the
demand. Another thing which is
for the rise in price of
wool is the shipping of hundreds of
of sheep out of the north
west to the eastern markets for mutton.
Over 100000 head of sheep were
driven from the ranges of Eastern
Oregon, Idaho and Montana last week
10 be prepared for the stock market.
The mildness of the weather during
5he past winter has had the effect of
a much finer quality of
wool and it is in better condition gen.
orally than usual. The spring clip
'or this section of the state has not
begun as yet, on account of the unset
led condition Of the weather, but it
will begin about June 1.-Salem
statesman.