FOR SHOW RING AND MARKET. 211 



by mutton known as ''woolly" mutton. Where, as in some- 

 cases, two or more slaughtermen are working in company- 

 it is usual that quite a number of sheep are "stuck down'" 

 at one sticking, and it is then noticeable, usually, that by the 

 time the last one of these is dressed, the stomach has become 

 distended with gas. Upon smelling the inside of this car- 

 cas the "woolly" odor is plainly smelt; therefore, my conten- 

 tion is that a slow dresser is the manufacturer of woolly 

 mutton. Scarcely is the life out of the animal before the gas 

 commences to accumulate. The swelling of the stomach 

 proves this. This is the commencement of decay. It is a 

 well-known fact that a "gutted" carcass does not decompose 

 nearly so rapidly as one remaining intact, or not "gutted." 

 It appears somewhat unreasonable to the writer to sup- 

 pose that wool in coming in contact with the flesh for so- 

 short a period and in so slight a degree as is usual in the 

 course of dressing a sheep or a lamb, can possibly be the 

 cause of woolly mutton, because the skinning of a sheep 

 should not, at the outside, take more than ten minutes, 

 when done by one laying any claim at all to being a_ 

 butcher. The. record time for dressing sheep is, I believe, un- 

 der three minutes. Now when we consider the case of 

 newly shorn sheep it appears almost impossible that the 

 woolly flavor of mutton can be traced to the wool through 

 coming in contact with the flesh, but the truth is the woolly- 

 flavor is no less in evidence in newly shorn sheep than in 

 those clothed in their longest or heaviest coats where the 

 animal has been allowed to lay for any considerable time 

 after being dead before being "gutted." Further, it appears- 

 very unreasonable to suppose that through the wool com- 

 ing in contact with the flesh on the outside of the carcass that 



