News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-04-03
MARY'S LITTLE LAMB.
NOW HER OVERCOAT WAS TAKEN
OFF AND WHAT WAS DONE WITH 1T.
SbearipR the sheep in the Olden Time in the
Green Mountain State.
IFrom the Century Magazine.]

| from the Century Magazine.]
Wool-growing became the leading in
dustry of the Green Mountain State.
Almost every Vermont farmer was a
shepherd, and had his half hundred or
hundreds or thousands of grade sheep
or full bloods dotting the ferny pastures
of the hill country or the broad levels of
the Champlain valley, rank with English
grasses. From old Fort Dummer to the
Canada line one could hardly get beyond
the sound of the sleeps bleat unless he
took to the great woods, and even there
he was likely enough to hear the inter-
mittent jingle of sheep bell Ginning
with the songs of the hermit and wood
thrushes, or to meet flock driven clat-
tering over the pebbles of mountain
road; for wildwood settler had his lit
tie herd of sheep, to which he gave in
summer the freedom of the woods, and
which took-alas for the owners crops
the freedom of the meadow and grain
patches, and were sheltered from the
chill of winter nights in frame barn
bigger than their masters log-house.
In June, when the May-yeaned lambs
were skipping in the sunshine that had
warmed The pools and streams till the
bull-frogs had their voices in tune, the
sheep were gathered from the pastures
and driven over the dusty roads to the
pens beside the pools on the tapped
mill-humes and washed amid pother of
of rushing waters, shouts of laughter of
of men and boys, and discordant, plain
tiff bleats of parted ewes and lambs.
A fortnight or so later came the great
event of the shepherds year, the shear
ing, for which great preparation was
made within house and barn. The best
the farm afforded must be provided for
the furnishing of the table; for the
shearers were not ordinary farm labor
ers, but mostly farmers and farmers
sons, and as well to do as their employ
er, who was likely enough to shear, in
his turn, for them. Whoever possessed
the skill of shearing a sheep thought it
not beneath him to ply his well-paid
handicraft in all the country round. For
these the fatted calf was killed and the
green peas and strawberries were picked.
The barn floor and its overhanging
scaffolds were carefully swept, the
stables were Uttered with clean straw,
the wool-bench was set up, and the reel
full of twine was made ready in its place.
Those were merry days in the old gray
barns that were not too fine to have
swallows holes in their gables, moss on
their shingles, and a fringe of hemp, |
mayweed, and smartweed about their |
Jagged underpinning. There was jest |
ing and the telling of merry tales from
morning till night, and bursts of laugh
ter that scared the swallows out of the
cobwebbed roof-peak and the sitting hen
from her nest in the leftover hay-mow.
Neighbors called to get taste of the |
fnn and the cider, to see how |
the flock ''evridged' and to engage
hands for their own shearing. At noon
ing, after the grand dinner, while the
older men mapped on the floor, wool
bench or scaffold, with their heads pill
lowed on soft places, the young fellows
had trials of strength at pulling stick"
or lifting ''stiff legs" The skillful
wool -tyer was rarer than the skillful
shaarer, and in much demand in his own
and neighboring townships. He tied
the feeces quickly and compactly, show
ing the best on the outside. but with no
clod of dirty locks in the middle; for in
those days wool had its place and dirt
its place, but the fleece was not their
common place. The catcher was an
humble but not unimportant member O.
the force. He must be alert and with
sheep ready for each shearer as wanted,
and was never to take up a sheep by the
wool, but with his left arm underneath,
Just behind the fore legs, and his right
hand grasping hind leg. And there
was the boy to pick up locks, discarding
the dirty ones, which were swept out
doors. Ones back aches as he remem-
bers this unpleasant duty of his boy
hood, when he was scoffed by shearers
and scolded by the wool tyer, and often
had the added labor of carrying the
wool to its storage. Fourteen feeces
tied up III a blanket was the load, which,
if they had been of nowadays weight,
would have burdened strong man; but
a fve-pound fleece was heavy one
then. ] have never been present at one
of the modern public shearings, which
comes before the swallows do, while
winter is still skirmishing with spring,
and are celebrated In the local papers;
but doubt if they are such hearty and
ENJOYABLE seasons as the old-fashioned
shearings were.
The wool-buyers secured the country
at or after shearing time, and drove their
bargains with the farmers. The small
lots of wool were hauled in bulk to some
central point of shipment, while the
larger clips were sacked on the growers
premises. The sack was suspended
through a hole Of its own diameter in an
upper floor and a few feeces were thrown
in, when the packer lowered himself into
it and placed and trod the wool as it was
passed to him till he had trod his way to
the top. Then the sacks were lowered,
sewed, weighed, marked, and went their
way to market.
The "tag-locks" and pulled wool were
mostly worked up in the neighboring
small factories into stocking-yarn fan
mel, and blankets for the farmers use,
and into the then somewhat famous
"Vermont gray" which was the common
cold weather outer clothing of New Eng
land male farm folk. Readers of Thor
eau will remember that he mentions it
more than once, and thought it good
enough wear for him. The Yankee farm
er wore it "to mill an to meetin', and
the young men of forty years ago were
not ashamed to appear in such sleeps
clothing at the paring-bee or the ball.
A KNOWING HEN.-At Bethany, Pa,
rnoantlv rhoq Auaru ubila cbovaliuo