LiveStock. Sheep Frequent Clipping of-^Clothing of. 70 1 



Mr. Ellman, an extenfive South Down fheep-farmer, clips of} the coarfcu of the 

 \vool on the thighs, and docks a month before the time of wafliing and {hearing, 

 which he fells, as locks, at 3^-d. per Ib. ; the quantity being about four ounces per 

 fheep. He finds this method to anfwer very well, keeping the fheep clean and 

 cool in hot feafons. It is a practice in many other diftricls with other breeds of 

 fheep, and is found to have many advantages, not only keeping the animals clean, 

 but in ewes preventing their becoming fore in the udder.* 



Some have fuggefted the cutting or clipping of long-horned fheep twice of 

 oftener in the coinfe of the year, about January and June, as by this means they 

 fuppofe that there would be an advantage in having the fecond cutting much finer, 

 and if well kept the fheep would probably fuflain no injury. f In an experiment 

 made by John Afkcw, efq. of Billingfburn in Northumberland, the firft clipping 

 was performed on the f)th of February, and the fecond on the s.^th of June, the 

 ewes being flickered and fed with a little oats for fome time afterwards ; the refult 

 was, that both the ewe and the lamb continued in the beft condition of any in 

 the flock, and the quantity of wool was increafed ; the firft clipping affording 

 feven pounds and a half, and the fecond three pounds and a half, making toge 

 ther eleven pounds ; while in a year s growth clipped at once the weight was only 

 nine pounds. The quality was likewife fo much improved that the fecond 

 clipping was worth eight millings a ftone more than the firft. And it is fuggefted, 

 that as the 11 four months growth was exactly of the proper length for carding, 

 the long- woolled fheep, inftead of twice, may be clipped three times in the year.J 



The clothing of fheep has likewife been attempted with a view to the bettering 

 of the wool. In Mr. Brodie s experiment in this way the improvement in the 

 wool is faid to have been very great. The expcnfe about feven-pe.nce per fneep 

 for two or three years. By combining this practice with the above, it is fuppof- 

 ed that the combing-wool may be converted into that of the clothing kind, and 

 that while the quantity and quality of the? fleece is improved the carcafe of the 

 ihcep may be much benefited. 



The experiments on thefe interefting points are fo few, and the expenfc of fuch 

 management fo little detailed, that no fatisfactory conclufion can probably yet be 

 drawn. It mould not, however, be forgotten, that it has been in general conceived, 

 that a certain maturity in the wool was necefTary to its perfection, and that in the 



* Com fted Report of the North Riding of Yorkfhire. + Annals of Agriculture, Vol. XV, 



Ibid. VIbid. Vol. XVI. 



