The Owosso times., 1921-04-22
OWOSSO. MICH. APRIL 2s, 1921

(fTepdreQ Dy the OnlteQ States depart
ment of Agriculture)
They are being shown" down In
MissOuri-and they like 1t.
For the first time the wool growers
of that state have been marketing
their wool comparatively, and the plan
Is proving a great success. At 70
Capitalization points the wool has
been brought in from the country for
pooling. All told, several thousand
growers have shared in the big CO.
operative movement and wool amount
ing to millions Of pounds has been
handled. In each case it has been
graded as the growers brought 1t in,
an expert grader supplied to the bu-
reau of markets, United States De-
partment Of Agriculture, classifying
the feeces. The work Of the grader
is part Of an investigation being car
ried on by the bureau in connection
with a study of the tentative wool
grades which the Department Of Agri-
culture has recently established.
It isn't so much the immediate In
crease in money returns resulting from
cooperative marketing that interests
these grOwers-althOugh they promise
TO fare as well or better than the aver
age in this years market, which Is far
from normal-but it is the benefit they
expect to derive next year and the
years following from their experience
Of this season.
The Showing" in MissOuri-and
elsewhere-has consisted in demon.
strating the value of grading as car
ried on under the cooperative plan.
The growers have been quick to see
their mistakes and propose not to re-
peat them. AS a result, the entire
wool industry is to profit by gen.
eral raising of standards among the
growers.
Amazing Variety Of Wrappers.
The seemingly incidental-but real
ly very impOrtant-matter Of wrapping
the fleece illustrates the benefits of CO
operative wool marketing. One Of the
regulations which must be observed, If
the wool grower is to suffer no penal
ty when his wool is graded, Is that
each fleece shall be wrapped in pa
per twine or hard-glaZed twine. II
other twine is used fbers from it are
almost sure to become mixed into the
wool and may cause serious trouble
in the spinning machinery, or If these
fibers are woven into fabric they be-
come conspicuous owing to the fact
that they take the dye differently than
the wool fbers. This often results in
the cloth having such defects as to be
almost worthless.
Many wool growers had never un-
derstOod this until 1t was explained to
them by the grader, consequently some
Of the lots of wool brought into the
warehouses were done up In ways
that would have been amusing had it
not meant considerable financial loss
to the uniformed growers. Some
used binder twine and sisal, others
bark, smooth wire, and barbed wire,
and still others cotton rags torn in
strips. The majority, Of course. had
materials.
Incidentally the bureau Of markets
explains that Missouri is not alone in
the matter Of being Shown" since
wool growers In all sections of the
country have discovered that they
have been following practices that
often seriously penalized them.
mo More Wet Wool for Me-"
But the use Of proper wrapping ma
terial is not the only thing which the
ing. "Shear the sheep when the wool
is absolutely dry" say the Department
of Agriculture and wool experts every
where. But many growers apparently
do not know Of this requirement One
grader in Missouri was amazed to find
Oughly soaked. Pressed for an ex-
planation the grower admitted that he
did not know that moisture made any |
difference In the grade, but realized |
that moisture added to the weight. |
When asked how he could account for
the condition of his fleece, he admit
ted that he had allowed his load Of |
wool to stand in the creek all night |
When he discovered that this was re-
sp0nsible for his wool being rejected |
he took the decision smilingly and
with "Nevcr again!" drove away.
Burs Cause Trouble.
One class of rejects In wool grad
ing is known as BURY" Many farm
ers have become indignant when some
Of their fleeces were thrown into the
bury class. But In each case the
grader has been able to show them
by careful examination that the con-
demned fleeces contained large num-
bers Of burs--sometimes 80 or 60. |!
Every such experience has sent the
grower back to his farm resolved to |
"clean up those burs." Next year
you'll see an Improvement in my |
WOOL" more than one man has told
the grader.
1t is experiences like these that are
making wool growers In many sections
Of the country realize that they have
not been getting the full returns for
their product. They see that the CO
oporo tive oysfar, pot only lessons the