State Agricultural Society. 475 



The owner is not compelled to take any one's opinion but his own. If 

 he has any particular rams or ewes that he is disposed to think "can't 

 be beat," he has now a chance to make notes that will serve for compari- 

 son. This is the time of all others for him to do his culling out. Each 

 animal that goes below his standard may now have a distinguishing 

 mark put on it, by which it can be picked out at a moment's notice when 

 a purchaser comes along. If keeping anything like a complete register 

 of his flock, the owner will find in this inspection of animals and fleeces 

 all the work he wants, and no time for doing any of the dirty work of 

 shearing. There are so many things to be taken into consideration in 

 registering or culling out sheep, that a man who understands himself 

 pretty well will hardly have pronounced on one animal before "the 

 boys" will have another shorn and ready for his inspection. For 

 instance, suppose one of your old ewes under view, and she is still 

 thrifty and fit to breed; you already know her qualifications to be first 

 rate, but her fleece falls off, say two pounds from its previous weight; 

 you may be able to account for this by some incident of her career 

 during the year without disparagement of her real merit, and thus be 

 saved from condemning a superior animal. Again, every breeder ought 

 to have in his mind an ideal standard sheep, as to form and fleece, 

 towards which he is breeding and selecting. At shearing he can best 

 judge those sheep that are departing widest from the direction of his 

 standard, and cull out some that may bo really high class animals and 

 will command a full price as such. At the same time he will now detect 

 the points in which his ewes are most generally deficient according to 

 his standard, which will determine the points to be mainly looked for 

 and secured in the rams that he will select for service the ensuing year. 



PACKING WOOL. 



To pack wool requires a platform from which the wool sack is to be 

 hung; also an iron hoop which is made for the purpose, a one quarter- 

 inch round bar, its circumference equal to that of the sack. First cut 

 out boards enough to form the top; then cut an equal number of square 

 feet of boards and lay at a right angle upon the first, and tack all 

 together. Now describe the inside circle just one inch less in diameter 

 than the iron hoop, and the outside circle in diameter equal to that of 

 the hoop. Cut out the inside circle through both thicknesses of boards, 

 and the outside or larger circle through the top boards only. Now nail 

 (or what is better, screw) the boards together firmly at all points, and 

 cut the whole platform across along the line into two parts. Next, out 

 of four-by-four scantling make a frame, letting the two side pieces 

 extend one foot bej'ond the platform towards the cross-bar. On this 

 frame nail the half of the platform firmly. Nail on the other end of 

 the frame side pieces, the cross-bar cut to take the wedges. The other 

 half of the platform remains loose and is merely laid upon the frame 

 and secured in place by driving home the wedges. If you had a bank 

 barn and shear on the upper floor, this frame and platform can be laid 

 over a hole in the floor, the wool sack hanging down in the lower story. 

 If not, it needs to be mounted on any appropriate staging, six and one 

 half feet high; four four-by-four studs set on end and well braced on 

 three sids, leaving one side open, will last for years. Have the wool 

 sacks each with a handful of wool in the lower corners tied around the 

 outside so as to form a button or ear to the sack. Mount the platform, 

 and putting the hoop outside of the sack near the mouth, turn over the 



