The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1898-04-02
NEW HAVEN MoRNINo JOURNAL SATURDAY.

nothing has as yet been found that will
do the work of shearing a sheep so
we'll and satisfactorily as the old-fash-
ioned shears which were in use in the
days when the old masters painted
their famous pictures of the lovely
shepherdesses and handsome shepherds
with their crooks and pipes.
Sheep shearers are paid for their
work at a certain rate for every sheep
they shear, and you may rest assured,
therefore, that they work rapidly and
allow no grass to grow under their feet
while at work. On every sheep ranch
there is a large shed called the wool
shed, in which there are openings COM
municating, with the pens where the
| sheep are kept while sheep shearing is
| going on. A shearer desiring subject
| for his work goes into one of the pens,
seizes a sheep by one of it's hind legs,
| drags it into the wool shed through the
communicating opening made for the
purpose, and with a suddenness more
swift than that of a transformation
scene in a pantomime transforms the
animal from thickly covered woolly
| creature into a shorn, aked-looking,
| chilled and frightened spectre, which,
! allowed to escape from the hands that
| have despoiled him of his fleece-not
| inaptly called a golden fleece, for his
owner will soon exchange it for gold in
| the New York or Boston niarket-runs
| through a door at the opposite side of
the wool shed, and again resumes it's
rambles over the open prairie in search
| of sustenance.
| ir0rnrtonf f11natiOn1rU in
sheep shearing is the tar boy. And
what in the name of all that is good is
the tar boy?" / hear some reader ask.
| Well, the tar boy is nothing more nor
| less than a boy with a bucket of tar
and brush. And what is the world
does he do with bucket of tar and a
brush?' asks Mr.. Reader. do they
tar and feather the poor sheep if they
do not give wool enough?" Oh, no;
not so bad as that. You must know
that while there is nothing whatever
that the most fanatical advocate of
kindness to dumb animals could con-
strue as cruelty in the shearing of
| sheep, nevertheless even the most
careful shearer will sometimes nip the
skin little with his shears. When
| that happens he calls out loudly,
"Tar" and the tar boy runs to him
and with his brush smears a little tar
over the nipped place, experience hav-
ing proven that there is nothing so
healing to wounds on a sheep as pine
| tar. A first-class sheep shearer will
shear from seventy-five to a hundred
sheep in a single day.
One of the diversions of shearing
time-and, indeed, of the shepherds
4 life at any timeis fight between rams.
| Many of these creatures, despite the
timidity Of their nature where other
animals are concerned, are very pug
nacious toward each other, and causes
of quarrel often arise among them, the
most usual one being a contest for the
favors of some eve fancied by BOTH
| In such cases each backs away some
ten or twelve PAGES from the other and
then both put their heads down and
run at each other with force and
speed that one would hardly think
| them capable of. Crash! go the two
heads, and a priori reasoner would ex-
/ pect to see them smashed to smither-
eens. But, no; the crushing blow does
| not seem to have the slightest effect
upon them. Again they run back ten
or twelve PAGES, and again run for
ward. Again they bring their heads
/ together with awful force, and again
neither is apparently any the worse
for the blow, which, in the words of a
popular song, would almost kill father.
This process is repeated ad libitum I'M
til the shepherds, weary of the sport,
interferes to put stop to it.
There are some fine shepherd dogs on
the sheep ranches of ansas. The INTEL
| 1igence of these animals is remarkable.
| At night the shepherds ride out on
their ponies, accompanied by the dogs,
and drive the sheep into the corral or
Enclosure. The dogs are the chief fac
tors in this work. Through the day
the shepherd usually lounges upon
some little knoll which commands a
view of the sheep. His faithful dogs
are with him, and if he sees a sheep in
clined to stray too far from his fellows
the dogs promptly go out and drive him
in. Sometimes a prairie wolf will
grow bold and seize lamb. Then
shepherd, pony and dog have an excl
ting though usually fruitless chase,
for nothing of the equine species has
the speed or staying power of a prairie
wolf. Sheep will make some effort to
4 defend themselves if attacked when
alone. They will form into a circle and
try to present determined front, but
il the enemy perseveres they soon take
to their heels-St Louis Globe Demo-