Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1914-11-19
SHEAR|NG SHEEP BY
Use OF MACHINE
Western Ranchmen Dispensing
With Hand Work BY Adopt
ing New Methods
SHEAR TWENTY MILLION
The Men Who Strip the Flocks of
Their Wool Are Nomads Who Wan
der from State to State-Montana
Man Holds the Record

MARTINSDALE, MON.-The great
sheep camp of the United States is
here in the Northwest. The shearing
of the twenty or more million sheep
that produce wool, like the garnering
Of wheat and other big crops, re-
quires the employment for more or
less shortened period of large num-
is entirely insufficient and were it
not for the existence of a partly or
gained body of nomads, who start in
at the south and work their way
north as the season broadens, great
difficulty would be met with.
Many of these shearers are East
erners, New York furnishing quite
number. Before reaching Montana
or Wyoming they have relieved many
thousands of sheep of their fleeces.
They begin down in Texas or per-
haps Arizona and work north, taking
in Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, Wyoming
and the Dakotas before they land in
this state
These men are we'll paid and most
of them end the season with from
$500 to $500 in their pockets All are
experts. Most of them still use the
wrist thong and hand shears, but in
the last few years shearing by machi-
merry has come in vogue and is rapid
ly superseding all other methods.
The better hand shearers average
100 sheep day, and there are few
who have a record of 200 in twelve
hours. 1t is hard work. A man must
stand with legs stiff for hours, he
must lean over until he can almost
reach his toes and he must all the
time be holding down a struggling,
frightened animal.
These hand workers are paid at the
rite of seven or eight cents for each
fleece dropped, and for each three or
four shearers there Is a man who ga
theirs up the wool at quarter of a
cent for each fleece tied up and de-
livered to the sacker. The grading
is done in advance of the shearing,
SO that subsequent trouble is avoided.
After the shearing has been accom-
plished the wool is sacked in long
bale-like burlap forms and turned
over to the freighters.
In the last four or five years the
shearing machine has pushed to the
front. An ingenious mechanic has
devised shear which can be worked
either by hand or mechanical power,
and which has proven tremendous
economy. The. machine is declared
by sheep men to be as far ahead of
the old hand shears as the self-binder
is in advance of the old fashioned
cradle r. M. Marquis, Montana
young man, holds the worlds record
both for hand and machine shearing.
At Bower Brothers ranch near here
he sheared $50 seven pound ITO the
fleece) wethers in IA hours 46 min
utes, taking off $3.50 pounds of wool
with a machine. This record will
likely stand for long time.
The mans work is almost as me.
chanical as that of the machine he
uses. He starts in by grabbing the
animal by the right hind leg with his
its back. He then pulls 1t into an
upright position, with it's hindquar.
ters on the ground and the body
resting between his legs. He begins
by parting the wool at the forward
end of the brisket and starts the
clippers going. Bent over at an angle
of 10 or 80 degrees, he keeps firm
hold of the sheep with his knees
turning the animal as though it were
in a wise and keeping the skin
stretched tight. When half way
through he has attained the position
of having partly stepped back, while
the sheep is fiat on it's side. 1t is nc
trick for him to finish the animal in
two minutes and he has turned out
as many as twenty eight in an hour
Besides the advantage in time and
labor cost the machine does not hack
or cut the sheep, and 1t Is possible
to get from a half to pound and 9
staple Is longer and this means &
better price Usually it Is not desir
able to send hand-sheared sheep u
the market until week after thu
clip, as 1t takes that long to fee'
them into presentable shape This Il
avoided by the use of the mechanical
contriyance, which leaves the anima
evenly clipped and free from cuts.
The hand power machine is in al
most universal use among the smal
ler flock masters.