Many growers apparently do not realize the effect that improper methods of packing have upon the prices received for wool.

Just a little more care in preparing wools for market would often mean better prices to growers. Sisal and jute twines are too widely used for tying fleeces. Paper twine is best as it contains no loose fibers to break off and mix with the wool. Since sisal and jute will not take the wool dyes, wool containing these fibers make a defective cloth. Removal of fragments of sisal and jute from wool is an expensive operation; consequently wool containing these fibers can not command full market prices. As untied fleeces hamper grading and increase the cost of handling in central markets, buyers offer lower prices for them. Wool so put up that the individual fleeces are tied with the flesh side out, and with tags, dung locks, seedy, burry, and black wools packed separately, make the most favorable impression upon buyers. Even the best wool buyers can not accurately estimate the percentage of the various qualities when all kinds of wool are thrown together; therefore, under these conditions they can not accurately compute prices.

FIGURE 247.—Wool fleeces. A, Fleece neatly and securely tied with about 12 feet of paper twine; B, fleece tied with 110 feet of heavy jute twine weighing one-half pound. Jute or sisal twine is objectionable because fibers break off, become imbedded in the wool, and can not be removed without considerable expense and trouble

Instances of falsification in packing are relatively infrequent, but some unfortunate examples in the 1928 clip have appeared on the Boston market. In several large lots, a majority of the fleeces had concealed in them chunks of mud and dung weighing up to 2 pounds. Rocks, wet sand, and scrap iron packed with wool, and 100 feet of heavy twine used to tie fleeces were apparently intended to increase weights. A black list of growers known to have used such methods is doing much to eliminate such practices.

Packing wool while it is wet may cause serious damage. Excessive moisture, in conjunction with the dirt normally present, may cause wool to heat and become discolored and musty. This disqualifies it for worsted manufacture as weakened fibers break under the strain put upon them by worsted machinery and stains caused by heating can not be scoured out. Buyers avoid musty wools or offer extremely low prices for them. Usually, weak and stained wools can be sold only for woolen manufacture. Woolen wools of good color and strength usually average 10 cents per pound lower than corresponding grades of worsted wools, and stained, tender, or otherwise damaged woolen wools are often penalized another 10 to 15 cents per pound. These prices are all for scoured wool. It may be explained that woolen wools are comparatively short in fiber, whereas worsted wools are relatively long.

FIGURE 248.—Foreign materials found in wool fleeces. A, An 18-pound piece of concrete; B, stones; C, scrap iron (B and C had a combined weight of 20 pounds); D, hank of jute twine 110 feet long weighing one-half pound