332 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



with one of its sides off, to exhibit the interior arrangement, should forai 

 a part of the table, and should be about 9J inches wide and 9 deep, and 

 its length corresponding with the width of the table, would be five feet. 

 Near its back end, and about one-third of its width from each side, gimlet 

 holes are bored just large enough for the passage of ordinary wool-twine. 

 Two balls of twine are placed in a vessel beneath, the ends passed through 

 the holes, and the whole length of the ti'ough, and are fastened in front by 

 being dra^vn into two slits formed by sawing a couple of inches into the 

 tottom of the trough. The holes and slits should be small enough, so that 

 the twine will be kept drawn straight between them. 



The tyer placing his hands and arms (to the elbow) on each side of the 

 fleece folded as above, now slides it into the trough. There are two 

 methods of having it lie in the trough, represented by the following cuts. 

 That on the left is the more ordinary, but not 

 the best method. It will biing to the two ends 

 of the done-up fleece (the parts most seen in the 

 wool-room) the ridge of the back and two lines 

 half way down each side of the sheep. The for- 

 mer is sometimes a little weather-beaten, and if 

 any hay-seeds have fastened in the fleece, they 

 show most on the back.* And the two lower 

 lines are a little below the choicest wool. — 

 Placing it in the trough as in the right-hand figure, rolling would bring 

 both ends of the fleece fi-om the wool between four and five inches from 

 the ridge of the back, the choicest part of the fleece. Besides, the edges 

 of the breech fold, which is not so fine as the shoulder, which sometimes 

 show by the first method of rolling, are always concealed by the last. 



The wool being in the trough, the tyer steps round to the back end of 

 it, and commences rolling the fleece from the breech to the shoulder. He 

 rolls it as tightly as possible, pressing it down and exerting all the strength 

 of his hands — minding, howevei", not to tear the outside fold — or strain it 

 so apart as to exhibit the outer ends of the next inside layer or fold. 

 When the rolling is completed, he keeps it tight by resting the lower part 

 of his left arm across it, reaches over with the right, and withdrawing one 

 of the ends of the twine from the slit, places it in the left hand. Then 

 seizing the twine on the other side of the fleece with his right hand, he 

 draws the twine once about the fleece with his ivhole strength, and ties it 

 in a hard or square knot. The fleece will then keep its position, and the 

 other twine is tied in the same way. The twines should be drawn with a 

 force that would cut through the skin of a tender hand in a few moments.t 

 The twines are then cut within an inch of the knots, Avith a 

 pair of shears. The fleece is slid out of the end of the 

 trough, when it will be a solid, glittering mass of snowy 

 wool, in the shape shown in the cut on the right. If well 

 and tightly done up, however, the divisions given on the 

 end of the fleece, in the cut, to exhibit the foldings, will 

 not be perceptible — and nothing but an unbroken mass of 

 the choicest wool of the fleece. 



The twine should be of flax or hemp, and of the diameter of ordinary 

 sized hardware twine. Cotton might do, if smooth and hard enough so 

 that no particles of it could become incorporated with the wool — in which 

 event it does not separate from the wool in any of the subsequent processes, 

 and receiving a different color from the dyes, spots the surface of the cloth. 



* Hay-seed, or rather its chaff, will not wash entirely out of wool. 



t It is customary with some tyers to wear a gloTe on the right hand — or cots on the two fore-fingers. 



Fie. 26. 



