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be done out of doors. The bench on which the sheep are 

 laid should be planed smooth to prevent injury to the fleece 

 or sheep, and if possible, they should be sheared on a barn 

 floor, the latter being beforehand swept clean of straw or 

 dust, as otherwise much filth will adhere to the wool, affect- 

 ing its quality. Nothing contributes more to the sale of 

 wool, as well as of all other farm products, than neatness in 

 packing up. Shearing should take place, in Tennessee, 

 about the middle of May, or later if the warm weather is 

 backward in coming. If shorn in cold weather the sheep 

 will shiver in the cold, and take many lung diseases. When 

 every thing is ready the shearer, with his assistants, will 

 place the sheep on the bench, and place the head of the 

 sheep towards the shearer, the sheep resting on the right side. 

 Begin by cutting all the tags off the fore leg and belly and 

 neck. Let them be thrown on the floor and carried in a 

 basket to one side out of the way, by no means allowing 

 them to get mixed with the wool. Cut with the hand 

 elevated, so as to keep the point next the skin, along the 

 sides of the sheep's belly, fore leg, and over the backbone, 

 as far as can be reached with the shears, then around the 

 hind leg, tail, to the former cut. The sheep is now turned 

 over on the shorn side, and soon divested of his coat by be- 

 ginning at the same point and meeting the first cut. Bear 

 in mind all the time to keep the hand well away from the 

 sheep's body, and never by any means take two cuts at the 

 same length of fibre. If the fibre is cut it is injured. 

 Therefore if a farmer wishes to know whether a sheep is 

 well shorn, he should not only look at the sheep, as many 

 smoothly shorn sheep are badly shorn, but look at the in- 

 side of the fleece, and see if there are any short pieces of 

 wool. Should the skeep's skin be cut with the shears, as it 

 will be sometimes unavoidably, put a little tar over the 

 wound, or fty's eggs will be deposited in it, and the place 

 will soon be swarming with maggots. 



Packing the Fleece. The manner in which the fleece is 



