FOR SHOW RING AND MARKET. 217 



hand and with the left, strip the skin back toward the 

 backbone. This is easily done. Treat the remaining side in 

 the same manner, only reversing position of hands. Now 

 if the skin be loosened from the rump-fat, the skin can be 

 easily pulled from off the back and detached with the knife 

 at base of the skull. In dressing wethers care should be 

 taken that the scrotum fat be left intact i. e., it should not be 

 cut off. 



Washing;. 



The carcass of an animal should never be washed; that 

 is, considered in the true sense of the word; but, rather, be 

 wiped with a cloth that has been thoroughly rinsed and 

 wrung as dry as possible immediately before using. As soon 

 as the blood-stains, etc., have been removed by the wiping T 

 cloth, the operator should empty the veins of the back of 

 blood; this is accomplished by a kind of scraping of the 

 veins with the knife, commencing on either side of the 

 backbone and scraping toward the belly. 



Gutting. 



Gutting is the act of removing the entrails of an animal. 

 First, the breast bone must be divided. This is readily 

 accomplished in the case of lambs and young sheep with the 

 knife, but in the case of aged animals an old knife and rjam- 

 mer, or a meat saw, must necessarily be used to divide the 

 somewhat harder bones. By inserting the knife at the open- 

 ing at the breast or throat of a lamb and by an upward 

 drawing cut, the knife quickly opens the tender bones of its 

 breast. Care must be used when nearing the diaphragm or 



