GENERAL FEATURES IN SHEEP MANAGEMENT. 185 



at so much per stone, gross weight. When sold by dead weight 

 they are sold per stone dead-weight. It is usual to sell them 

 sinking the offal ; this implies that the wool, skin or pelt, head, 

 and the whole of the internal organs, with the exception of the 

 kidneys and the kidney fat or suet, and the legs below the knees 

 and hocks, are not weighed in, but a sum equivalent to their value 

 is mentally calculated, and added to the price per stone of the 

 whole carcass. 



A considerable difference is, of course, made when sold carrying 

 a heavy fleece or freshly shorn. A 12 Ib. fleece, at lOd. per lb., 

 naturally adds ten shillings to the value of a sheep, and if the sheep 

 weighs 10 st., it makes a difference of a shilling per stone. The 

 dead weight of an animal is taken when the body has cooled and 

 dried. As the sheep are killed from home, it is necessary for the 

 seller or his trusty agent to see them weighed. A simple brand 

 should be put on the heads, and the head should not be severed 

 from the carcass until the time of weighing, as there is no other 

 way of identifying the body, and another may be substituted to 

 the disadvantage of the seller. When buying by live weight, 

 it is usual to calculate on the fasted live weight, as it is very different 

 when calculated on an animal with its paunch full. A rough 

 estimate is found on the basis of allowing 8 lb. of carcass and 

 6 lb. of offal to each stone of 14 lb. It is usual, therefore, to speak 

 of a stone live weight as being 14 lb., and a stone of mutton as 8 lb., 

 the two being described as long or live weight, and short or dead- 

 weight stones. This is by no means applicable in all cases, as the 

 percentage varies greatly between a store and an ordinary fat 

 sheep, and, of course, far more in the case of a sheep fit for exhibition 

 purposes. Condition and breed are matters to be considered. 



Live Weight in Pounds. Percentage of Mutton. 



In Wool. Newly Shorn. 



Skins of sheep, whether with wool on or not, should be sold 

 when fresh. It is a great mistake to leave them to spoil, as is so 

 commonly done. 



With something like 30,000,000 sheep in this country, and 

 with no small portion of the country quite dependent upon sheep 



