The Penn's Grove record., 1915-07-23


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 a few
oats, but their stomachs do not reveal
q great quantity of this or any other
grain.
AS the season advances they gather
Into large fiocks 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
Bprouting rice in spring and upon the
ripening grain on their return migra-
ton in the fall. With a change in
the r~ice-raising districts, however,
His 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 ad-
vancement in clipping and assert
ing f1eeces 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 n 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
ment of agriculture, bulletin FOG. "The
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 thai
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
1,OVU VI o,VUV pOuAuo VI SdCu VI lie
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 a Philadelphia m%anufactur
er-the American at 1872 cents a
pound and the foreign one at 28 cents
a pound, before securing. In the
American fleece the kind of wool that
this manufacturer really wanted
amounted to 1878 per cent of the
total; in the foreign fleece to 1896 pei
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 fol
the domestic wool 1917 cents a
pound-a difference of 9h cents. By
the time shrinkage, off Sorts etc.