WOOL-CLASSING 97 



finish that way just doing things their own way instead of 

 yours. A young classer must learn how to manage men, as his 

 success depends on the way these men do their work. When 

 the first fleeces come up to the table he should go up and show 

 the shed hands exactly what he wants to do with the wool. It 

 is one of the shed overseer's duties to see that the fleeces are 

 picked up and delivered to the wool tables in a proper manner. 

 If they are not the classer should inform the shed overseer and 

 tell him how he wants the fleeces thrown. 



As I have mentioned in the chapter on Shearing, a lot depends 

 on the throwing out of the fleece, because, if well done, the wool- 

 rollers or skirters can do their work quickly and correctly. If, on 

 the other hand, the fleece is badly thrown, the skirters do not 

 know where to begin. They start pulling off faulty pieces 

 wherever they can see them. Besides, it cannot be done well, 

 and it takes about treble the time to skirt a badly thrown 

 fleece that it does to skirt one that is thrown out correctly. 

 The first thing the skirters should do is to cut off the britch 

 wool as deep as the classer instructs them. The wool skirted 

 off a fleece should be faulty wool, otherwise it should not be 

 taken off, though in some cases, especially on the neck of some 

 fleeces, it is necessary to take off a little good wool, as it is mixed 

 up amongst the cotted neck wool. The britch wool is usually 

 coarser than the rest of the fleece, and when the sheep are 

 pastured on burry country this portion of the fleece contains a 

 good deal of burr. All the burry wool should be taken off, unless, 

 as I have mentioned earlier, the bulk of the fleece is burry. In 

 that case only the heaviest of it should be removed. The britch 

 wool which the skirters have taken off should be thrown into a 

 basket or on the floor at the end -of the rolling table, and on no 

 account should it be mixed up with the neck or other skirts, as it 

 would make it much more difficult for the piece-pickers to sort. 

 The skirter should then skirt up the sides of the fleece, taking the 

 wool off as deep as the classer instructs, till he comes to the neck 

 of the fleece. Neck wool has to be taken off in different ways, 

 according to the class of country the sheep have been on. Sheep 



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