474 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXXIX. 



The mountain breeds, being very wild and restive, are usually tied by the 

 legs previous to the commencement of the process ; but with others of a 

 more quiet disposition, it is not customary. The animal being handed to the 

 shearer, he takes it between his legs, placing it upon its rump, with its back 

 against him, holding it with his left hand, and with a .sharp pair of spring- 

 shears, blunted at the points — which, being without handles, he can manage 

 with one hand — he with his right clips the wool from the neck and shoulders. 

 He then turns the sheep upon its side, and kneeling upon one knee, he 

 holds it down by the pressure of his leg upon its neck, cutting the wool 

 circularly round the body, by which the work is closely and uniformly exe- 

 cuted. The entire fleece is thus stripped off at once, and rolled up firmly 

 by another person, the outside being folded inwards, from tail to shoulder, 

 and tied together by a portion of the wool twisted into a rope*. 



It is also a good practice to clip off the coarsest wool on the thighs and 

 dock about a month before the shearing ; as this keeps the sheep clean 

 and cool in hot weather, and the clippings, which may amount when washed 

 to about a quarter of a pound, are used as stuffings for flock-beds and 

 horse-collars. 



Experiments have been made on shearing the sheep twice in the same 

 year — the first clip six weeks before the usual time, and the second in the 

 month of September. The trials, however, have not been attended with the 

 expected advantage ; for although a trifling additional quantity of wool was 

 thus obtained, it weakened the staple in the following year, and exposed the 

 animals to injury from cold. To meet this latter objection some persons, 

 indeed, proposed to clothe them in flannel jackets ! in the same manner as 

 sometimes practised by the Leicester tup-masters ; but it is almost needless 

 to say that, however such a plan may suit the breeders of rams of a delicate 

 and high-priced species, the idea of thus dressing up whole flocks was too 

 absurd to be generally entertained. 



Means have been likewise tried, on the celebrated national Merino flock, 

 at Rambouillet, in France, of improving the quality of the wool by allowing 

 the fleece to grow for several years ; and, it is said that some of the sheep 

 which were not shorn for three, and others five years, produced a larger 

 growth, as well as a stronger staple and a closer pile, than those which had 

 been annuallv shorn. The additional value of the wool did not, however, 

 appear to have compensated for the loss thus occasioned in quantity, by the 

 omission of the two years' clipping, as the plan was not continued. It 

 must also, we conceive, have been prejudicial to the constitution of the 

 animal ; for it is the general idea of all intelligent breeders, that extreme 

 heat is more hurtful to it than severe cold. Indeed, as the growth of new 

 wool raises the old from the skin, and deprives it of nourishment, we should 

 have imagined that the experiment must have injured the fleece instead of 

 benefiting it.' 



The shearer should be an expert and neat workman. He should cut the 

 wool quite near and close to the skin, so as to make a clean clip; for it thus 



* Or more minutel}- thus : — "When shorn the fleece should be carefully folded and 

 rolled, beginning at the hinder part, and folding in the sides or belly-wool as the rolling 

 proceeds. When arrived at the shoulders, the wool of the fore part should be rolled 

 back to meet the other, instead of having the hinder twisted from thence in the usual 

 manner, and the whole secured by a pack-cord, in the common way in which parcels are 

 tied up. Thus the fleece is kept much tighter together, and unfolds itself with more 

 regularity under the hands of the sorter, who is otherwise much inconvenienced by the 

 confusion or breaking of those j)arts of the fleece, .which in ihe common methods are 

 twisted together for the baud." — Complete Grazier, 6th edit. p. 272. 



