5. Wool growers sometimes sell to local dealers. This is particularly prevalent in regions where the individual grower’s production is small. In most eastern states there are a great number of small farmers who grow a certain amount of wool. The local dealers are in many cases also the general store-keepers, and, since they are the farmer’s creditor on other merchandise, and since the average farmer knows very little about the grades of wool, these individuals very frequently turn a handsome profit when they in turn sell to the visiting buyers.
Coop. Sales
6. Some wool is sold through farmers’ co-operative sales agencies, but these organizations have in the past been so poorly administered, that, as a general rule they have not been successful. The movement is, however, gaining ground and has shown great progress during recent years.
Auctions
7. Finally, there remains the method whereby almost all the British and colonial wools are sold, namely, by auction. Auction sales have been established for almost a century in London, Liverpool, Antwerp, Bremen, Hamburg, Marseilles, and recently in Australia. This method of disposing of their raw product does not, however, appeal to the American growers, because of the inherent American trading instinct. It is also not very feasible in this country, because the wool is not graded in the shearing sheds and because sheep-raising in not standardized.
Markets
The chief markets for wool in this country are Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York and St. Louis.
3. Pulled Wool
We have above discussed the shearing and marketing of wool obtained from the living animal. There remains a large quantity of wool which is taken from the pelts of slaughtered sheep. In 1919 there were produced 48,300,000 pounds of pulled wool in the U. S. as against 265,939,000 pounds of sheared wool.
Use