The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-04-22
POETRY.
Invocation.
AGRICULTURAL.
Washing and shearing sheep.


to shearing, whether they really want it or
not, is now going out of fashion. The wool,
no matter how clearly washed, will not be
used by the manufacturer without thorough
securing. and it is now settled thing with
many intelligent farmers that the few cents a
pound extra that washed wool will bring will
not compensate for the cost of the labor of
washing and the danger to the health of the
sheep and the men employed to wash them.
Only those sheep the feeces of which are
soiled with mud or dung are now washed.
SheariDg, to the onlooker, is very simple
affair. But when the beginner has tried his
hand, he will realize how perversely shears
can cut, how easy it is to snip out about a
pound of.mutton, and how difficult not to
balance the error by leaving on about pound
of wool. When, too, he has had fair trial
of strength with an old ram, he will begin to
wonder if there is not some magic in the art,
as he sees the 'old hand" coolly shipping
away, the sheep lying contentedly or giving
up after a few futile kicks. Facility with the
shears can only be acquired by practice, and
the best school is to watch skillful operator
and acquire the trick from him. A study of
the following from an cold hand" will help:
AS 10 where the shears are to be first in
serted and how the shearer is TO hold his
sheep, are points for the shearer to decide. /
should insist that the fleece be always taken
off as an entirety, with exception, perhaps, of
the belly and tags. Also see that the wool is
not cut to pieces nor hacked by cutting twice in
the same place. Each stroke with the shears
should be clear and complete and made close
to the body. If mistake be made, let it 60
at that; for If you do leave a half an inch Of
wool at that spot, you get it next shearing
and if cut now it will be too short to be Of
any use to the manufacturer, and will only
injure in his estimation the parcel of wool in
which it was discovered.
In opening up the neck or shearing the
belly, when it becomes necessary to open the
wool, let the shears be worked in gradually,
cutting the wool of an even plane close to the
skin until they are in and underneath the
wool as far as they will 60, then raise them,
tearing the fleece open. Thus, commence
ards the head. This prevents cutting the
staple along the neck and makes better job.
In shearing on bench, catch the sheep by
the left hind leg, back it toward the bench,
and roll it over thereon; set it up on its butt,
and then, as you stand with your left foot on
the bench, lay the sleeps neck across your
left knee, with his right side against your
body; now take the two fore legs under your
left arm, and begin about the center of the
belly and open the fleece fore and aft. Shear
what would be the left side of the belly if the
brisket. Now cut off all tags from the inside
of the hind legs, and shear the breach as far
as you can reach in this position. Return to
the point of the shoulder, going up under
the wool with the shears as above described,
to the butt of the ear; now shear around,
taking off the fleece as an entirety and in
Guiding the foretop clear round the neck.
You will proceed thus down the left side,
taking the left fore-leg by the way, and shear
&c 70 ft,n ohn ontsa Ii
while holding in the position described, which
will be two or three inches past the spine. On
reaching the hind-leg, say about the stife,
you will then insert the shears on the inside
OF the hooks (wool below that point is COM
monty tags) and shear around the leg back to
where you left off on the stifie-joint. Should
the sheep persist in kicking at this stage, place
the palm of the left hand on the stifejoint,
which causes the leg to lie out straight. Shear
clear around to the breach or the place
shorn when working on the belly taggings,
were the sheep standing on his feet, every
thing on the left side, including one TO three
inches on the right side from the spine, from
head and tail and including the whole tail,
shall be shorn.
Now, taking the left hind leg 1.-THE one that
Is shorn) in your left hand, swing the sheep
around With its spine directly toward you, be-
ing careful that some of the fleece goes under
him, for his left hip bone, which is shorn and
bare, now comes in contact with the boards,
causing him to lie uneasily. Now return with
the shears to the head or neck and 60 down
the right side (the winning side" as it is
calledl, taking in the two legs and right hand
side of the brisket and belly. You may now
finish up, trimming off any tags that may have
escaped, including that wool on the legs be-
low the knee and hook joints. Now see that
the fleece is all clear from the sheep, land let
the animal go. Next, gather up all bits of
fleece and tags together with the fleece itself,
and give them to the man who ties up wool.
II the floor and bench round about be clean,
proceed to catch another sheep; if they be not
clean and any excrement has passed, it is to
be taken up and thrown out of the pen. 1t
will be seen by this description that the wool
all through the operation will hang down and
have tendency to fall apart. This is counter
acted in greater measure if the sheep be
shorn on the floor than on bench, for,
though the same manner of opening up and
shearing be pursued, still as the shearer goes
down each side, the sheep lies on the oppo-
site side, and the distance from that point of
the fleece whence the wool is hanging, to that
point on the floor where it is resting is not so
great as where the sheep sits cup on end."-
Canada Farmer.