Fergus County Democrat. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-1919, 1906-03-27
Price S Cents

medium. Montana mediums sell at 25c
to 26c.
The Perkins & Noble clip at Phoenix,
Arizona, was sold to large Boston
house at as high as 81 7Sc. This clip
shrinks around 63 per cent, grades fine
and fine medium, is practically FREQ
from defect. and is Of fair staple. The
wool will cost, landed, close to 25 1-2c.
Sales for the week in Boston, 2,S50.OO0
pounds.
The wool market Is firm. but there
Is not much business transpiring. Only
two or three houses have succeeded In
accomplishing any business worthy Of
note, comprising sales Of fine medium
and medium territory, and South
American and Australian crossbreds.
Quite number of the mills have been
represented In the market. including
the worsted and wooen dress goods
makers. a Philadelphia worsted spin
ner. manufacturers OF thibets and kerr
seys. carriage cloth manufacturers and
makers Of uniform cloths; two we'll
known dress goods mills have purchase
ed foreign crossbreds, one Of these con-
| Germs taking on a fair amount Of South
| American quarters; but the purchases
| OF consumers have. in the main. been
| 900 to $4,000 pounds.
There Is, perhaps, as much business
as could be reasonably expected, In
view Of the small selections procura-
BILE. There are really no large and de-
sirable selections Of good staple wools
| available, except of foreign woods, and
| how long these will last In view Of the
strengthening tendency maifested on
the other side OF the water, Is not
| clear. While more domestic wool would
have been sold, If there were larger
and better selections to choose from,
the tendency among some consumers
lately has been to hold Off. pending the
opening of the London wool auctions.
which began on Tuesday of this week,
although the trade for the past two or
| three weeks have been stoutly contend
| ing that these sales would open firm
and. i'm all probability, at an advance.
SO firm We're they In this view that
! renewed attempts at contracting in the
| territories have been made recently, but
without any marked success. One
house In particular, which has pretty
well sounded many of the largest grow
ers in the territorial sections. Is sats-
| fled that 1T Is impossible to contract for
large amounts Of the 1906 clip at rea-
sonable figures. In Montana 1t Is very
difficult to contract for less than 25
cents, and this price the eastern deal
ers will not pay. In Idaho limited
amounts have been contracted for late
ly at 19c to zoe, and In Utah at 19c
to 21c.
In Oregon some contracting on a very
moderate scale has been going on at
zoe. In Phoenix, Arizona, sales OF the
m RI .,1,
| be made at at 21c to 22c. In wyoming.
1t Is about as impossible to do anything
as In Montana. Such contracting az
has been done recently. except In Ari-
zona. has been mostly on the basis of
close to zoe, clan, landed, which allows
little II any, profit to those handling
the wools on todays market Unless
developments are to be such as to show
a larger margin Of profit than Is at
present discernible, the season bids fair
to be long drawn out one, although.
as pointed out by one dealer, there is
no telling what the wool trade will do.
They have gone into the country SO
many times with conservative ideas
and determination not to buy WOOls
except at prices which will allow them
a profit on the existing level of prices
at the seabOard, and have departed SO
| many times from this policy of opera
tions. that 1t would not be at all sur
prising to Sc them buy freely again,
even at the high prices asked by the
growers. At present, however, there is
| a clearly expressed determination not
to do So
| The course of the foreign markets in
not such as to render 1t any easier for
the wool merchant to contract for the
new clip. In fact, the situation Is In
tensified by the character of the OPEN
ing of the Ondon auctions which began
on Tuesday. with a large attendance,
| good competition and a net available
quantity Of 10000 bales. Prices, as
compared with the closing rates at the
preceding series, showed an advance Of
s to 7 1-2 per cent on merinos and wools
| of Sos to Sos count; and an advance Of
10 per cent on wools of 36s to 46s count.
One cable quotes merinos as par to s
per cent up, and crossbreds at per
cent up. Still another cable quotes
fine crossbreds to 71-2 per cent up;
medium crOssbreds. Z 1-2 to 10 per cent
up; low crossbreds, ~ 1-2 per cent up.
and merinos up to per cent, with the
market excited.
In the face Of such a strong market
/
very stetdy, although complaint con-
! t''iues to come from the wooden mills
as to the size and character of the
! business which many are doing, and
many of them are running in a half
hearted way. The worsted mills also,
In some cases, especially the worsted
spinners, are not doing the business
that they We're few months ago;
mems wear worsteds are not selling as
well as they We're; and the open and
mild winter through which we have
passed, it is believed, will be felt in
the next heavyweight season, owing to
the amount of heavyweight clothing
which will naturally be carried over by
the retailers. The wool dealer contem-
plating this phase of the situation sees
little to encourage him In opera ting
| very freely in the new wools in the in
terror; and yet. when he contemplates