Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1901-12-14
THE GREATEST HAIRCUT
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ME THODS
OF SHGARINC THE SHEEP.

Professional Cutters he gin Sheaiing the
Lacks in the Northwest in Early spring
Working Westward and Ending their
Season in California-W ages Are Good.
Man is not the only animal that has
his hair cut at regular intervals, and
it might be interesting to note that
the most extensive hair cut in this or
any other country has no reference
whatever to the human biped, writes
G. L. w. in the Country Gentleman.
Up in the northwest professional hair
cutters begin shearing the flocks early
in spring, and as the season advances
they work their way westward and end
up in Nevada and California, when 1t
Is about time to return to the original
starting point and repeat the opera
ton. In the course of the year they
cut something like 5OOOOO,OO pounds
of hair.
The present consumption of wool III
the United States is estimated at about
600,000,O00 pounds, and, though the
statisticians of the department OF agri-
culture say that We have about 1885,
065 sheep on the farms and ranches OF
the United States, these are unable t.
supply the full demand for wool, and
We import some million pounds every
year. But the task of shearing over
100000 900 sheep is not one to consider
lightly, and as the wool piles up, new
wheels of commerce are started in their
revolution.
strengthening time in the earlier
days Of our countrys history was
season of jollfication, and the farmer
and his hired help would go down 10
the sheep pasture to make merry with
the frightened animals. One by one
they would be caught, and while one
held the animal securely the other
would proceed to clip off the wool
with a huge pair of hand shears.
strengthening time would often
occupy weeks on the large farms.
and when it was over, the great
mass of soft fluffy wool was piled up
in the sheds to be cleaned and worked
over or shipped to the market in its
rough state. Not little of 1t was
woven into cloth on the farm by the
wife and daughters of the owner.
But with the multiplication Of the
sheep, the necessity Of better and
quicker methods of shearing was felt.
In the northwest and on the Pacific
coast there are farms and ranches with
from $4,000 to 100000 sheep, and to
shear such hocks in the old way would
be an almost impossible task. 1t is
these new conditions that have brought
| the professional hair cutters into eX-
istence, and they move from farm to
farm in regular circuit every season.
These professional shearers are cX-
perts in their line, and they have DEM
onstrated that it pays better to be a
tonsorial artist for sheep than for man.
A good shearer will make from 81 to
$40 per day, but that represents pay
ment for his skill and labor and in
terest on his machines and general out
fit.
| When the shearers come to the ranch
or farm, the trusting sheep are driven
into a narrow pen, where they are
|
/ shearers receive their pay according
to the number of sheep handled. and
consequently they proceed with all ex-
petition. On large ranches. a score of
shearers operate together. The power
instruments are set up and the shear
ers take their positions in rows, while
the sheep are brought to them by as
sistants. The cutting instrument is an
enlarged and improved sort of BARRIERS
| clipper, which takes huge swaths of
wool off at once. An expert operator
| will handle the machine so deXterouSly
that the wool will come off almost in
solid mass, and it looks for all the
world as if the animal was being actu-
ally skinned alive. But when the opera
ton is finished, it Will be found that
not bruise or scratch has been made
on the skin, and the animal scampers
away shorn and shaved within small
fraction Of an inch of it's skin. The
wool is gathered up by another oper-
ator and carted to the packing house,
where it is tramped into huge burlap
bags, each weighing when filled about
1886 pounds.
The shearers receive from seven to
ten cents per head for shearing the
sheep, and days work for one pro-
fessional is from 125 to $50 head. That
| is an Uncomfortable operation for q
| barber who cuts the hair of his human
| PATIENTS but then, while the latter is
| operating on one person. the skilled
sheep shearer would cut the wool from
the backs Of half dozen sheep. The
sheep sheared by dozen professional
operators in the course of week
quickly mount up into thousands, and
the modern ranch, with its hundred
thousand and more sheep ready for the
hair cut. does not present such for
midable problem as formerly.
The revival of the wool industry in
| the past few years has added material
ly to the number of sheep on the farms
in the United States. The actual
amount of wool can only be estimated
from year to year until the shearing
season has ended The number of
sneep in the country does not accurate
ly forecast the wool supply. Some of
the moderate high-class wool sheep
! give two and three times as much as
the old common animals, and an esti-
mate Of the wool can be made only ap-
proximately unless the breed Of the
animals is known also. There are
over IS grades and breeds of sheep in
TINS country. and they vary as much
|
they do in price and general valua-
ton.