Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1915-07-27

Length ABOUT seven lncneS.
almost entirely upon vegetable food.
This consists for the most part of
weed seeds, since IN the North these
birds do not appear to attack grain
to any great extent. They eat few
oats, but their stomachs do not reveal
a great quantity of this or any other
grain.
AS the season advances they gather
into large flocks and move southwark,
until by the end of August nearly all
have left their breeding grounds. On
their way they frequent the reedy
marshes about the mouths of rivers
and on the inland waters of the coast
region and subsist largely upon wild
rice. In the middle states, during
their southwark migration, they are
commonly known as reed birds, and
becoming very fat are treated as
game.
Formerly when the low marshy
shores of the Carolinas and some of
the more southern states were de-
voted to rice culture the bobolinks
made great havoc both upon the
sprouting rice in spring and upon the
ripening grain on their return migra-
ton in the fall. With a change in
the rice-raising districts. however,
this damage is no longer done.
Cooperative Marketing of Wool.
Serious losses are often suffered by
the flock master because Of improper
methods of handling the clip. West
ern wool growers are paid lower
prices than foreign producers because
Of inaccurate grading. In recent
years they have made some adj
vancement in clipping and assert
ing feeces as shown by cleaner
clips being offered for sale in
some localities. In the West some
of the large sheep breeders associa-
tons have officially recommended
certain changes in the handling of
wool by the growers. 1t is estimated
that improper methods Of preparing
the wool for shipment cost the flock
master from one to three cents a
pound, for the manufacturer is fire.
quently put to an extra expense,
against which, of course, he protects
himself by lowering the price to the
grower.
To remedy this condition, some
form of cooperation among wool
growers in any given region is urged
in a new publication of the depart
/ Ill lgr1Lo
| Wool Grower and the Wool Trade"
| The individual alone can do little to
| improve matters, for his clip is like
ly to be too small to induce the buy
| ers to make any alteration in their
accustomed methods of estimating
wool values. With cooperation. how
| ever, it should be possible to prepare
| the entire clip of any section so that
| the reputation of its wool would be
enhanced and the growers obtain the
! full market value of their product. A
sufficient number of wool growers
should be included in each co-opera-
| tive association to enable at least
1000 or 5000 pounds Of each of the
various grades to be marketed at one
time.
Cooperation will, of course, do lit
! tie good, however, unless the individ-
ual growers follow improved methods
of handling the clip. An instance of
the present low price of American
wool as compared with foreign is
| given in the bulletin already men
toned. Two lots of wool of the same
grade, one of them from Idaho and
the other from Australia, were pur-
chased by Philadelphia manufacture
er-the American at 49, cents a
pound and the foreign one at % cents
a pound. before securing. In the
American fleece the kind of wool that
this manufacturer really wanted
amounted to 1919 per cent of the
total; in the foreign fleece to 1886 per
cent. A more accurate system of
grading had given this manufacturer
| IL per cent more of what he wanted
than the American methods In con-
sequence the foreign sheep grower
got the larger price for his fleece.
| The manufacturer paid for the i'm
| ported wool % cents a pound and for
the domestic wool 1871 cents a
| pound-a difference of 91z cents. By
the time shrinkage, of Sorts" etc,
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