The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-01-23
SHEARiNG BY MACHINERY.
Dissatisfaction Has Been Expressed by
Some Of the Owners of Large
Bands With the Method.

Great Falls, Jan. PHI. l.. Halliday
of Galveston, Texas, has made propo-
sition to Herman w. kraus by which
the latter is to put in 30 strengthening
machines at Pondera, with all of the
requisite sheds and the like while Hal
liday is to furnish the machines. The
condition required by Halliday is that
he be given a guarantee of 10000 sheep
to shear.
These machines were given a thor
ough test in this country last summer.
There were d number al work on the
Little Muddy. and later they We're
moved to this city, and the description
of them at work at the Black Eagle
Falls with power furnished by the dam
and the electric power houses has been
told in almost every paper in the coun-
try. The story got to the syndicates,
which dish up their matter in the form
of plate and patent insides for country
newspapers, and thus Great Falls indi-
rectly became immortalized. Thousands
of visitors watched them at work and
nothing but praise was heard.
OF late the sheep owners have begun
to doubt whether the old-fashioned way
of shearing by hand is not after all the
best When the machines We're al work
one of the advantages claimed for them
was that they took off about half a
pound more OF wool per sheep than the
hand shearers were able to get and the
owners of the machines lost no oppor
tunity to advertise this seeming argu-
ment in their favor. Now those who
had their sheep clipped by the ma
chimes were beginning to say that for
some reason the method Of shearing, or
for some other reason the wool is not
growing as rapidly as it should. and
they are in doubt as to whether they
will allow their sheep to be Sheared an
other season by the machines.
Most of the sheep which were sheared
Al ID
Eagle Falls belonged to Harry Nelson
of Cascade. and it is said tonight that
the unusual mildness of the winter has
been a godsend to him as otherwise his
loss would have been heavy. The Power
outfit, whose sheep We're sheared by the
machines on the Little Muddy, tonight
telephoned parties in this city who were
interested in the machine process. that
their sheep had not done as well In the
way of wool-growing this year as usual,
and they attributed the fault to the
manner in which they were sheared last
summer.
1t is argued by sheepmen that no
matter Whether the Weather is unusu-
ally hot or unusually cold at the time
of shearing the sheep are in greater
danger after they have been relieved of
their coats by the machines than they
are when sheared by hand. If the
weather is hot then the lack of the eX-
ira quarter of an inch of fleece places
their hides made tender by the fleece
in the same condition as the skin of the
small boy who takes advantage of the
first warm day in spring TO go a-swim-
ming. The numerous blisters which re-
suit fix the date in his mind. 1t is the
same in a perhaps different degree with
the sheep. And If the weather is eX-
tremely cold then the advantage of the
extra fleece needs no exponent. It is
likely that the sheepmen OF Northern
Montana will give the matter full con-
sideration before shearing time comes.
At present sheepmen who cling to the
old method say that the machines re-
tard the growth of the wool and will
have nothing to do with them.