170 TIME BETWEEN WASHING AND SHEARING. 



TIME BETWEEN WASHING AND SHEARING. This should 

 be determined by the weather. The fleece should become 

 thoroughly dry, and be so far again lubricated with yolk as 

 to have its natural silky feel and glossy appearance. The 

 secretion of yolk depends much on temperature. More of it 

 is secreted in one really hot day than in half a dozen dry, 

 cool ones. Consequently the time of shearing should be 

 controlled by the condition of the wool, and not by the lapse 

 of any established period of time. The old-fashioned wool 

 growers usually sheared within ten days of washing, if the 

 weather was dry, without much respect to temperature. 

 Their successors, for reasons which have been repeatedly 

 alluded to, generally aim to let enough time elapse for the 

 fleece to become well nigh as yolky as it was before washing. 



SHEARING. This should always be performed on smooth, 

 clean floors or platfonns, with the sheep penned close at hand. 

 If the weather is fair, it is best to drive only enough sheep 

 into the pen at once to employ the shearers three hours the 

 rest remaining in the pasture to keep themselves filled with 

 feed. A hungry, empty sheep is more impatient, and the 

 shears run round its collapsed belly and sides with more 

 difficulty. The bottom of the pen should be kept clean with 

 straw, saw-dust, or corn-cobs.* If there are any sheep in the 

 pen dirty from purging, they should be the first taken out. 

 They should be carried a little aside from the shearing floor 

 and the dungy locks cut away. When the catcher catches a 

 sheep in the pen he should lift it in his arms clear of the floor, 

 instead of dragging it to the door and thus filling its feet 

 with straw, manure, &c. At the door of the pen, he should 

 hold it up with its back resting against his own body and its 

 feet projecting toward the shearer^ who should be there with 

 a proper shaped stick to clear its feet of loose filth, and with 

 a short broom to free its belly from any adhering straws, 

 chaff or saw-dust before the sheep is carried to the place of 

 shearing. 



It is difficult to give any practical directions for shearing 

 which are of any use to the novice ; and experienced shearers 

 do not need them. The art can only be properly acquired by 

 experience and observation. A few suggestions, however, 

 may not be entirely thrown away. The first care of the 



* These last, if spread on the bottom of the pen a few inches deep, answer the 

 purpose admirably. They keep the feet clean and do not adhere to the wool if the 

 sheep lie down, 



