1. He may sell it to buyers representing merchants. The merchant, while he is a middle man and therefore incurs the usual anathema, performs a variety of very essential services. At the time of the clip he sends his buyers to the wool producing centers and buys the clip for cash, then he ships it to his warehouse, grades it, and sells to the mills on credit. Obviously he finances a very important part of the production, and is furthermore essential, because he knows the demand, which the wool-grower does not, and the supply—of which the mill is usually ignorant. [Sidenote: _Mill Buyers_] 2. The wool grower may also sell to buyers representing mills. He likes to do this because he eliminates the merchant’s profit, but, as a matter of fact, there are only very few mills large enough to stand the buying expense, and even fewer that can afford to buy their whole season’s supply of raw material at one time and for cash. Also, mills can usually employ only certain grades of wool, and cannot therefore as a rule buy a whole clip. [Sidenote: _Consignment_] 3. If the grower thinks that he is not receiving fair offers from the visiting buyers, he will frequently consign his wool to a merchant to be sold on commission for his account. In this case he may or may not get a better price, but it costs him his carrying charges plus commission. There are some wool houses that make it a specialty to execute commission sales of this nature. [Sidenote: _Local Mills_] 4. Some wool is sold direct to nearby mills. This is done particularly in Ohio, where many of the smaller mills obtain their entire requirements in this manner. [Sidenote: _Local Dealers_] 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. [Sidenote: _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. [Sidenote: _Auctions_]