The Lynden tribune. [volume] (Lynden, Wash.) 1908-current, 1921-05-19
ALL WOOL and
A YARD WIDE
SOME WOOL USED AS MANY
AS EIGHT
TIMES
New Laws Needed to Force La.
being of "Virgin Wool" to
Protect Buyer.
BY c. N. HUBBARD,
Extension Livestock Specialist.

Extension Livestock Specialist.
"All wool" bears about as much
relation to wool as apple pomice
does to apples. The term "all wool"
is a trade name, and when a suit
is purchased containing "all WOOL"
that wool may not have seen a
sleeps back for six years. II you
have an all wool suit that bags at
the knees and elbows and splits un-
der strain, don't be too severe with
your condemnation Of "all wool"
The material in such suit may
have been used before in another
suit, and the best qualities of the
wool lost.
AS time passes it has been found
necessary to enact laws in order to
protect the purchasing public from
limitations and counterfeits. All man.
ufacturers, or even a majority of
manufacturers are not INSCRIPTIONS
or dishonest, but in order to safe
guard the people and honest man.
uldCtuICIS AAOW tuO
practice of certain percent who
are careless or dishonest, laws have
been enacted. The pure food and
drug law, enacted by Congress pro-
tects the people by making it un-
lawful to sell foods or drugs not
true to name, weight Cor quantity
or constituents. In several of our
states, sacks containing feeds for
livestock must be plainly labeled as
to name, contents and weight.
Even patent pig feeds must sell
true to name and percentage OF
crude fibre and other constituents.
The same applies to manufactured
fertilizers which are spread on the
soil to increase the crop yield.
There are few, II any, staple ar
ticles, besides woolen goods and 9TH
er textile fabrics, which can be sold
not true to name today. Let US ex-
amien the term "all-woop: AL
WOOL may or may not, mean wool
freshly shorn from the sleeps back
and never utilized in a suit OF
clothes or other fabric, before you
purchased it. The average purchas'
er understands the term "all-wooI'
to apply to the first fabric into
which wool is manufactured after 1t
is shorn from the sheep. "All-wooi'
may or may not be "shoddy," the
latter being a term covering the
substitute for new (or "virgino
wool; that is, wool just shorn from
the sleeps back.
A suit of clothes or a piece OF
wooden fabric may be "all-woor' and
be all "shoddy"; or, it may be all
wool and still be part shoddy and
part virgin WOOL; or, again, 1t may
be "all.wool" and be made entirely
of virgin" wool. The buyer has no
way of knowing which one OF these
three his "all-wool' suit will be. IL
may be made from "shoddy' wnlcn
has been in from one to eight SUITS
OF clothes before being regrOund ana
mixed with a sufficient amount OF
new wool to hold it together, then
reworked into another suit.
Now let us examine the trade
term "Merino." The Federal Trade
Commission is standing firm upon
the proposition that "merino,' un-
less followed by the percentage OF
wool and cotton contained, refers 10
pure wool. The Commission sent
out missionaries in five cities 10
one hundred and sixty persons PICK
ed Unfortunately from the teie-
phone book and two-thirds OF them
believed "merino" to be all wool OF
the highest grade. A certain hosiery
company manufactures garments
containing from Is to 80 per cent
wool. The garments containing
about so per cent of wool are ID
beled wool underwear. Those De-
low so per cent are labeled "meri.
not" The word "merino" Is applied
to all of the fine wool Dreeds VI
sheep and naturally the average per
son seeing this label on fabrics
would understand it to signify ina,
the goods were not only all WOO
VIRGIN wooD but also the very high'
est quality of woods such as are
shorn from our Rambouillets, De
lanes and American Merino Dreeds
of sheep.
There is a marked difference IN
the wearing quality Of wooden rap
RIGS manufactured from virgin WOO
and that manufactured from small
amount of virgin wool intermingleo
with a large amount of wool shod
DIV. Every time an old wool suit Is
ground and reworked into another
suit the wool fibres become snort
err and lose their elasticity. IN
other words, this reground, reworK
ed wool becomes dead" and fibres
are weakened and so short that the
fabric is easily strained or ruptured
Goods containing wool shoddy can
not be identified from those manu-
featured from virgin wool. II Is es
sential to know what we wear as &c
know the constituents OF fertiiize'
which we spread on the ground OF
of the feeds we feed our hogs. Inc
object of the Truth in Fabrics
A~