206 FITTING SHEEP 



Whilst it is, comparatively, an easy matter for me to tell 

 the reader how to respectably dress a sheep or lamb for the 

 market, I could not promise to make a proficient butcher out 

 of him without his studiously devoting himself to the prac- 

 tical work. "Practice makes perfect," and it is by continual 

 practice only that a butcher can ever hope to become an 

 expert in his business. The shorthand writer, and the tele- 

 graph operator can best understand what practice means in 

 regard to speed and cleanliness of work. Speed means 

 cleanliness and neatness in slaughtering. 



No one will, I think, question my contention that the 

 shepherd or flockmaster who can dress his fat stock neatly, 

 and put same directly in the consumers' hands, or nearlv so, 

 thereby monopolizing the middleman's profits, is an econo- 

 mist, and is making the best of circumstances. It should be 

 borne in mind, however, that sheep and lambs must be 

 dressed in a neat, business-like manner when intended for 

 the market, or the probabilities are that the price received 

 from the consignment will not be just what the vendor ex- 

 pected. 



There is money in really good, fat spring lambs when 

 properly marketed. I have sent good fat Dorset spring 

 lambs to restaurants in Philadelphia which, in the month of 

 February, realized as high as $10 per head at a dressed weight 

 of twenty-two pounds, whereas a lamb weighing from five to 

 ten pounds more would not perhaps in June fetch more than 

 one-half that amount. 



The one most vital point that proves fatal to overlook, is, 

 whether catering to the wholesale, retail or private trade- 

 that nothing should be offered but prime ripe, fat animals, 

 dressed in a neat, clean and business-like manner. 



