204 TYPES AND MARKET CLASSES OF LIVE STOCK 



oughly. They are then driven into a small shackling pen, and 

 a shackle is placed around the hind leg. Two at a time, the sheep 

 are raised by a large revolving wheel to a point overhead where 

 the shackle automatically unhooks from the wheel and starts 

 down a gently inclined rail. The animal moves to the "sticker," 

 who quickly dispatches the sheep by a single thrust of a double- 

 edged knife, one man killing 600 to 700 sheep per hour. After 

 passing through many hands, the carcass reaches the cooler, 

 the dressing requiring about twenty-six minutes. 



Method of dressing. Prior to the World War, a number of 

 styles of dressing sheep and lambs were used, but during the 

 period of the war, as a conservation measure, the U. S. Food 



Fig. 56. Killing Sheep at Chicago. 



Administration instructed all packers that sheep and lambs 

 must be dressed by the plain or round method, and without 

 caul or pluck. This method of dressing, which is the most 

 economical, has been continued since the war to the present 

 time, and there is no indication that the other styles of dressing 

 will be practiced in the future. Plain- or round-dressed sheep 

 and lambs have the pelt, head, and toes removed, and the fore 

 legs are folded at the knees. They are opened from the 

 cod or bag to the breast, and are split through the breastbone. 

 A spread stick is placed in the breast to hold it open and properly 

 shape the carcass. 



Formerly, in dressing the lowest grades of mutton and most 

 lambs, the caul (a fatty membrane investing the internal organs) 



