136 FITTING SHEEP 



"tight little island." Cuts must be conspicuous only by their 

 absence. Shearing is not, as is sometimes erroneously sup- 

 posed by many flockmasters of this country, usually done by 

 shepherds, but by gangs of professional shearers, whose neat 

 and artistic work is indeed remarkable, and truly commend- 

 able. A short sketch of how, when and where sheep are 

 shorn in the old country, will not, I trust, be out of place, 

 but, on the contrary, I hope will prove interesting if not in- 

 structive to the readers of this little volume. 



Three styles of shearing are in vogue, viz.: "The long," 

 "the round" and "diamond" styles, the latter style now, how- 

 ever, being almost obsolete. 



The first move made in the shearing of a sheep is to seat 

 it on its rump and then "belly" it. "Bellying" in the shearers' 

 vernacular means removing the wool from the belly of the 

 sheep. The average English shearer makes it a particular 

 point that the subject under course of shearing be resting" 

 easy and free from oppression of any kind. Many shearers 

 remove the wool from the "butts" of a sheep while it sits 

 on its rump, whilst others lay it down at full length on its 

 side to perform this part of the operation. If it be the desire 

 of the shearer to shear the butts of the animal whilst it is 

 sitting on its rump, he quickly makes a few straight cuts 

 with his shears at a point near the scrotum, or udder, as the 

 case may be, to a point at or near the pin-bone. This pre- 

 sents a very pretty effect when the lines are so made as to 

 correctly meet those made during the process of removing 

 the wool from the animal's side. In the author's opinion the 

 wool on the butts is more easily removed when the sheep is 

 sitting on its rump than at any other time, or in any other 

 way. 



