SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



331 



FOLDING-TABLE. 



treated as domestic animals, there may be less barbarity in fall-shearino- 

 them than in the case of tender lambs, but I cannot conceive of any better 

 reason for it than in the former case, on the score of utility. Any o-ain 

 resulting from it cannot pay the additional expense it occasions. 



Doir;G-up Wool. — The fleece has been deposited on the " folding table," 

 and he whose business it is to do it up, first proceeds to spread it out, the 

 outer ends uptcard, bringing every part to its natural relative position. — 

 The table, with a 



fleece spread out on ^"S- 23. 



it, is represented in 

 fig. 23. The table 

 should be large — 

 say five feet wide 

 and eight long — that, 

 if necessary, several 

 unspread fleeces may 

 be put upon it at the 

 same time, and still 

 give room for spread- 

 ing one. It should 

 be about three feet 

 high. After the fleece 

 is spread, dung, burs, and all other extraneous substances are carefully re- 

 moved from it with a pair of shears. It is then pressed together v/ith the 

 hands, so that it will cover but little if any more space than it would oc- 

 cupy on the skin of the animal, if that was placed unstretclied on the table. 

 About a quarter of the fleece, lengthwise, or from head to tail, (represented 

 by 1 in the above cut,) is then turned or folded in (inverting it,) toward 

 the middle. The opposite side (2) is next folded inward in the same way, 

 leaving the fleece in a long strip, say 18 inches wide. The forward end 

 (3) is then folded toward the breech, to a point (represented by dotted 

 line) corresponding with the point of the shoulder. The breech (4) is next 

 folded toward the head. The fleece now presents an oblong square rep- 

 resented by 5 and 6. On the breech, in a small, compact bunch — so they 

 can be, subsequently, readily sepa- 

 rated from the fleece — the clean fribs 

 are placed. They do not include 

 "trimmings," (the wool from the 

 shanks,) which should not be done up 

 in the fleeces. The fribs may be laid 

 in at some earlier stage of the folding 

 — but if thrown on top of the fleece, 

 as is very customary, before it is fold- 

 ed at all, they slioio through, if the 

 latter gets strained apart, as it fre- 

 quently happens in the process of roll- 

 ing — and being coarser and perhaps 

 less white than the fine shoulder wool, 

 they injure the appearance of the 

 fleece. The fleece is now folded to- 

 gether by turning 5 over on to C, and 

 tho tyer carefully sliding it around on the table with his arms, so that 

 the shoulder shall be toward him, it appears as in fig. 24, ready to 

 go into the wool-trough. The wool-trough, which is above represented 



(651.) 



Fig. 24. 



WOOL-TROUGH. 



