Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1891-05-29
SHEARING THE FLEECES,
c. N. HARGEa WRITES OF LIFE ON
A PLAINS SHEEP RANCH.
Tho Great Gathering of the Flocks and
the Rape of the Fleece-Songs and
Amusements of the Shearers-A Gala
Month.
Especial Correspondence.1

Especial correspondence
ABILENE, Kan, May 28.-Spring is a
time of activity on the great sheep ranches
of the plains. What with the care of null
titudinous wobbly legged lambs, the herd
ing of the flocks and the annual shearing
"bees," the shepherds are kept unusually
busy. The woolly creatures that are found
in punches of 10000 to 100, 600 on the prai-
ries are by no means the oily coated, heavi-
ly built merinos or cotswolds of the east
ern farm. Long legged, with their taper
ing noses, and wool only upon the back and
sides, they are IL peculiar feature of the
plains.
Some portions Of the west seem made for
sheep. Western and southwestern Texas,
western Kansas and the plains of Wyoming
and Montana, with their level reaches of
grass, their brush and shallow streams,
make the ideal grazing land.
The population in the sheep region is
sparse, for sheep must have much ground
to feed or. Agriculture does not thrive,
and few of the government quarter sec
tions are taken up. The life of the sheep
herder on the plains is the most monoto-
nous imaginable during a large portion of
the year. The lock is easily tended, and
as he is usually a score or more of miles
from a town or station the days drag by
YEARLY.
But the lambing season is full of solicit
tude, and the shearing time brings the one
gala occasion of the year. If the ranch be
81 large one the men at the corral, who have
been so lonely all the season, find them
selves, in April and May, in the midst of a
veritable village. TIL shearers come out
from the railroad towns in big wagons,
bringing provisions and tents with them.
They camp out for the "job," and as all
the work is piecework-so much per fleece
there is a lively rivalry between the
shearers as to which shall do the most
work.
The shearera work in the wool shed,
close against one of it's faces, in which
there are openings leading to pens outside,
where are massed the unshorn sheep.
When the fleece is removed the shivering,
white, blcating animals are turned in the
other direction and 60 out on the prairie
to feed.
All work is at high pressure. A first
class shearer will clip from IS to 100 sheep
a day, and to the unaccustomed observer
the rapidity with which the work is done
is marvellous. 1t seems but a moment be-
tween the dragging in by a hind leg of a
struggling, kicking wether and the disap
pearance of the same animal through the
opposite door minus the handsome coat he
has worn through the winter.
When a shearer has shipped tie skin it
is his duty to cry 'Tar!!" upon which cry the
star hoy" with a pail of tar and a brush,
runs quickly aud daubs a little of the
liquid upon the wounded place.
AS fast as the fleeces are tumbled on the
floor they are gathered by the packers, who,
taking them to tables, fold them tightly,
inside out, and tie them with stout cord.
A tie box is usually employed in this oper-
alton When tied the leeces ure cubes of
about one foot on each side. They are
piled away in the shed until several hun
dred are gathered, when the baling begins.
Long sacks of coarse cloth are hung up,
and a boy or man lowers himself to the
bottom. One by one the fleeces are tumbled
in, and he treads them down. rising gradu-
ally as the sack fills until the top is reached.
when it is sewn up and is ready for draw.
ing to the railroad station. The sacks are
about nine feet long and three in diameter.
holding from $50 to $50 pounds of wool
each, according to the grade of the wool.
Ten of these sacks piled on a g make
a good load for a four horse team, and sitter
their forty mile ride across the prairie aal
q WV lllouSillu lllllC jill ny Idll lCUuIu lliS
owner a handsome sum in the New York
or Boston wool markets. The greater por-
ton of the wool is marketed in Boston,
which city, by reason of long inheritance
and proximity to the manufacturing towns,
uifers the readiest access to the wooden mill
purchasers.
1t is somewhat remarkable that despite
the advancement made in other industries
the shearing of today is done with the
same implement that was used a century
ago-the common sheep shears with wide
blades. Of all the inventions patented for
shearing by mechanical contrivances not
one has proved SO successful as to be pop
ular. The ~favorite form of inventions has
been in the nature of BARRIERS clippers,
sometimes run by betting from machinery
overhead in the wool shed. but the men
who do the work cling to the old fashioned
shears. There is a fortune ahead for the
man who invents a cheap and successful
substitute.
On many ranches, especially in the south
ern climate, the sheep at shearing time are
put through another process called dip
ping" The animals are afflicted with 1.-THE
scab," a scrofulous disorder which is in.
tensified by the presence of ravenous in
sects which find ready dwelling places be-
meath the warm wool. If too severe the dis
ease causes the fleece to drop off, or makes
it yalueless by reason of impurities that
cannot be separated from it. To destroy the
insects and heal the sores a strong solution
of tobacco, salt and water is prepared, into
which each sheep is dipped after being
sheared. Sometimes a second dipping is
necessary, and this takes place about July
l, just before the hot weather. The ''scab"
is the shepherds worst foe, and when it
once gets into a flock it is almost impos-
sible to wholly eradicate it.
The long evenings are the bright spot in
shearing time. The men gather around
the tents in which they camp during their
stay and tell stories ana sing song until one
might almost fancy himself in a bivouac.
The men are usually rough in speech and
manner, but they have a large assortment
of plainsmen's lore which makes a picr-
uresque collection as it comes from their
lips. With the bleating of the sheep in
the pens and the occasional answer of one
in the flock outside; with the calling of
the lambs for their mothers in that pecul-
lar lamb language which enables a eve to
distinguish her child and go directly to it,
though it be one among q thousand, there