Book VI 1 v 



MANAGEMENT OF SHEER 



10.37 



kinds. In Devonshire anil Spain, the 



to free the fleece from dust and dirt of various 

 short-woolled sheep are not washed. 



7178. In performing the operation of washing, it was formerly the method, and it still exists in the north, 

 to have the washers standing up to the hreast in the water ; but from the inconvenience and danger of it' 

 the men requiring a large supply of spirituous liquors, and being liable to be attacked with colds, rheu- 

 matisms, and other diseases, as well as being apt to despatch the work with too much expedition, so as to 

 leave the wool insufficiently clean, it has been proposed by Young, in his Calendar, to rail off a portion 

 of the water in a stream or pond (fig. 891.), for the sheep to walk into by a sloping mouth at one end (a). 



891 



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and to walk out by another at the other end (ft), with a depth sufficient at one part for them to swim : 

 and to pave the whole : the breadth need not be more than six or seven feet. At one spot on each side 

 of this passage, where the depth is just sufficient for the water to flow over the sheep's back, a cask or 

 box (c), water tight, should be fixed, for a man to stand in dry ; the sheep being in the water between 

 them, they wash in perfection, and pushing them on, they swim through the deep part, and walk out at 

 the other mouth, where a clean pen (d), or a very clean dry pasture, is ready to receive them ; of course 

 there is a bridge railway to the tubs, and a pen at the first mouth of the water (e), whence the sheep are 

 turned into it, where they may be soaking for a few minutes before being driven to the washers. But 

 other more cheap contrivances maybe provided, where there is clean water at hand for the purposes. 



7179. After sheep are washed, they should on no account be driven oi; dry or dusty roads; but should 

 have a clean hard pasture for a few days, until they are perfectly dry and in a proper condition to be 

 shorn. 



7180. 

 shorn, is 



a 



The common method of catching the sheep, in order to lay it on it on its back to be 

 by the hinder leg, drawing the animal backward with a crook (Jig. 892. a, b, c) 

 to the adjacent shearing place ; the hand holding the leg to be 

 gg2 kept low, when at the place it is turned on its back ; or they are 



moved bodily, or one hand placed on the neck, and another be- 

 hind, and in that manner walked along : the first or common 

 mode he thinks the most safe. Sheep fed on rich pastures, and 

 fleshy, if handled hard and bruised, the parts are liable to fatal 

 mortifications ; an accident which often happens, on which ac- 

 counts pens upon some lands are obliged to be lined with woollen, 

 or many would die from bruises. 



7181. In performing the operation of shearing, the left side of 

 the sheep is placed against the shearer's left leg, his left foot at 

 the root of the sheep's tail, and his left knee at the sheep's left 

 shoulder. 



7182. The process commences with the shears at the crown of the sheep's 

 head, with a straight cut along to the loins, returning to the shoulder, and 

 making a circular shear around the off side to the middle of the belly ; the 

 off hinder leg next : then the left hand holding the tail, a circular shear of 

 the rump to '.he near huek of the sheep's hind leg ; the two fore feet are next 

 taken in the left hand, the sheep raised, and the shears set in at the breast, 

 when the remaining part of the belly is sheared round to the near stifle ; 

 lastly, the operator kneeling down on his right knee, and the sheep's neck 

 being laid over his left thigh, he shears along the remaining side. 



7183. The method in Northumberland, introduced by the Messrs. Culley, 

 is to begin at the back part of the head, in order to give room for the shears 

 to make their way down the right side of the neck, to the middle of the breast. 

 The man then sits down upon his right knee, laying the head of the sheep 

 over his left knee bent, and beginning at the breast, clips the underside of the 



throat upwards to the left cheek; then takes off the back of the neck, and all the way down below the 

 left shoulder. He then changes to the contrary side, and makes his way down to the open of the right 

 flank. This done, he returns to the breast, and takes off the belly, after which it matters not which side 

 he clips, because being able to clip with either hand, he meets his shear points exactly at the middle of the 

 back, all the way, until he arrive at the thighs or legs. He then places the sheep on its left side, and 

 putting his right foot over the neck, and the other forward to the undermost hind leg, clears the right 

 side ; then turning the sheep over, finishes the whole. 



*718+. The fleece being removed, is wound up ; that is, deprived of any clotted wool or dirty part, and 

 lapped with the shorn side outwards, beginning at the breech and ending at the shoulders, where the neat 

 wool serves as a bandage. 



3 Y 



