SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 189 



It is scarcely necessary to remark that it is considered perfectly fair by 

 the purchaser, to take all the pains above recommended, to " put the best 

 side out " in doing up wool, provided every fleece is done up by itself. He 

 expects it, and graduates his prices accordingly. He who neglects it, 

 therefore, cheats himself. But to do up coarser fleeces, or any parts of 

 them, in finer ones put in " trimmings " leave in dung or use unne- 

 cessary twine are all base frauds. Sometimes the careless sheep-owner 

 will have his wool filled with burs, which he cannot or will not remove. 

 In that case he is bound to unequivocally apprise the buyer of the fact, 

 and allow him to open fleeces until satisfied of the precise extent of the 

 evil. 



STORING WOOL. Wool should be stored in a clean, tight, dry room. It 

 is better that it should be an upper room, for reasons presently to be given, 

 and it should be plastered, to exclude dust, vermin, insects, &c. Rats and 

 mice love to build their nests in it, to which they will carry grain chaff and 

 other substances, injuring much wool and it is singular that if accessible 

 to the common bumble-bee, numbers of their nests will be found in it. A 

 north and pretty strong light is preferable for a wool-room. 



When the wool-tyer removes each fleece from the trough, he places it 

 in a long, high basket, capable of holding a dozen fleeces, and it is imme- 

 diately carried to the wool-room or he piles it on the clean floor in the 

 inclosure in which his table stands, to be subsequently carried away. In 

 oither case, the fleeces are not thrown down promiscuously, which injures 

 their shape, but are laid regularly one above another, on their sides. In 

 the wool-room it is laid in the same way in smooth, straight north and 

 south rows (supposing the light to be let in from the north) with alleys 

 between, in which a man can pass to inspect the wool. The rows ought 

 not, perhaps, to b^ more than two deep, so that the end of every fleece can 

 be examined, but as it cannot be piled up more than about four fleeces 

 high in this way, without liability of falling, it is customary to make the 

 rows three, or four fleeces deep laying the lower ones a little wide, so 

 that the pile may slightly recede as it goes up. In this way they may be 

 piled six fleeces high. Where the character of the flock is known, or that 

 of the seller relied on, it makes little difference. It is considered fairest 

 to pile the fleeces without any discrimination as to quality, in the wool- 

 room. 



SACKING WOOL. When the wool is sold, or when it must be sent away 

 to find a market, it is put up in bales nine feet long, formed of 40-inch 

 " burlaps." The mouth of the sack is sowed, with twine, round a strono- 

 hoop (riveted together with iron, and kept for the purpose,) and the body 

 of it is let down through a circular aperture in the floor of the wool-room.* 

 The hoop rests on the edge of the aperture, and the sack swings clear of 

 the floor beneath. A man enters the sack, and another passes the fleeces 

 down to him. After covering the bottom with a layer, he places a fleece 

 in the center and forces down others around it, and so on to the,top, which 

 is then sowed up. Each fleece should be placed regularly with tlie Jiands, 

 and then stamped down as compactly as possible, so that the bale when 

 completed shall be hard and well filled in every part. The bulk of a given 

 weight of wool will be greatly affected by the care with which this pro- 

 cess is performed. 



Those who do not expect buyers to come and look at their wool, sack 

 it immediately after shearing. A temporary scaffolding is erected near 



* It is to secure this convenience that the wool-room is best placed on the second floor. 



