34 THE SHEEP AND WOOL INDUSTRY 



power. The electricity is generated by an electric dynamo which 

 is usually driven by an oil engine. The shearer can switch the 

 current on or off his own machine as he desires. Each shed 

 employs an expert, who sharpens the shearers' combs and cutters 

 and looks after the machinery. 



A good shearer will shear over 100 average sheep in eight 

 hours without any great trouble. A lot depends on the type 

 of sheep that is shorn. I have seen a man shear 215 light- 

 woolled Cross-breds in eight hours, and I have heard of instances 

 where fast shearers have bettered this considerably. On a 

 station the first sheep that are usually shorn are the ration 

 sheep. These are the sheep that are to be killed for house- 

 hold and shearers' use. After them the rams are generally 

 shorn, followed by all the dry sheep. These are sheep without 



SHEARING MACHINE HANDPIECE. 



lambs, such as hoggets, wethers, and dry ewes. The lambs 

 and ewes are then shorn. The former are drafted from their 

 mothers, and a mob of each is shorn alternately, the shorn 

 lambs being then returned to their shorn mothers. 



Two shearers generally have one pen to catch their sheep 

 from. They are called catching pens. When the shearer has 

 shorn the sheep, he lets it go into another pen, which is 

 known as a counting-out pen, because it is in these pens that 

 the overseer counts the number of sheep each shearer has 

 shorn. Shearers work eight hours each day. They start at 

 6 o'clock in the morning, if the light permits, and work till 

 8 o'clock. The breakfast-hour is from 8 to 9. They then 

 work till 10.20, when they have 20 minutes' rest, or " smoke ho" 

 as it is called, in a shed. Starting at 10.40, they work till 



