140 



THE GENESEE FAR^^CER. 



neighbors. The buyers wonld adopt a general 

 standard, and they would make the farmers suffer 

 for the increased risk incnrred in buying dirty 

 wool. Good sheep-breeders now complain, and 

 justly, that there is not enough difference made by 

 buyers in the price of fine and coarse wool ; and it 

 Bcems to us if sheep were not washed, the buyers 

 would discriminate even less in their favor. The 

 interests of wool-growers and wool-buyers are to 

 some extent identical. Both can judge pretty ac- 

 curately of the quality and value of a lot of wool ; 

 but it would be difficult to estimate the amount of 

 impurities in unwashed wool, and the buyer would 

 make the farmer pay for the increased risk. It is 

 precisely the same in regard to cleaning wheat. 

 A farmer who. sells his wheat in a foul state may, 

 for once, get more for the unwinnowed mass than 

 for the smaller quantity of good wheat it contains ; 

 but in the end the farmers suffer from such care- 

 lessness. It seems to us such would be the case 

 ia regard to this question of washing sheep. An 

 eminent woolen-manufacturer, of Lowell, Mass., 

 says : " The cheating practice of selling wool un- 

 washed is short-sighted, inasmuch as the 'clean 

 thing' brings a price proportionate. "We always fix 

 the price per lb. by the quantity of scoured wool 

 the fleeces will yield. In our purchases, tre fre- 

 quently make a difference of five cents per lb. in 

 precisely similar qualities." This advance is am- 

 ply sufficient to compensate for the time and labor 

 required to wash the sheep. We hope some of our 

 sheep-farmers will put the question to a test this 

 season. 



Sheep-washing is usually done about the last 

 week in May, in the Northern and Western States 

 and 'n . Canada. The rule should be to wait till 

 warm weather has set in; otherwise the sheep may 

 suffe'-, and perhaps many perish fi-om cold and ex- 

 posure. The best place to wash sheep in is a run- 

 ning stream of pure water, with a clean bottom. 

 The following method is famUiar to many of our 

 readers. The stream may be dammed up say three 

 or four feet high. At the lower part of the dam 

 place a couple of box troughs, open at the top, 

 some eight or ten feet long, across tlie end of which 

 place a piece of board with an upriglit stick nailed 

 t-o \p for a handle. The board slides in a groove, 

 and 19 raised or lowered at pleasure, to allow tlie 

 water to escape through the troughi'. Boards are 

 laid underneath the lower ends of the troughs for 

 the wa.^hers to stind on. The sheep are confined 

 in a yard close by, made of rails or hurdles. After 

 the tags have been removed from the sheep with a 

 pair, of shears, they are handed, oue at a time, to 



the washers, who hold them under the end of tlie 

 trough, turning them about to receive the full ben- 

 efit of the falling water. If the fall of water is 

 considerable — say from two to six feet — a couple 

 of turns and a good squeeze of the wool all round 

 will be sufficient to remove all impurities. 



After washing, the sheep should be turned into 

 a clean pasture, and allowed to remain at least a 

 week before shearing, to enable the wool to acquire 

 enough yolk or oil to confer that softness and elas- 

 ticity so much prized by the manufacturers, an(* 

 which also adds to the weight of the fleece. 



OBTJBS IN THE HEADS OF SHEEP. 



