186 Sheep Management, Breeds and Judging. 



and should count more for the winning animals 

 than it has in the past. 



TRIMMING SHOW SHEEP. 



Some writers and farmers have recently taken 

 up arms against sheep trimming. It remains an 

 open question why these men have taken such a 

 step. Has not the shepherd the same right to fix 

 up his stock to make it look best in the show ring 

 as the cattleman, the horseman, and the exhibitor 

 of hogs? Trimming sheep was first put into prac- 

 tice in England. American importers saw the 

 work done in that country and soon followed the 

 example. Nowadays many of the shepherds in 

 this country are men born in England where they 

 have learned this work from their fathers and later 

 have come to America and practice it here. 



There is nothing wrong in it. It seems as if only 

 those men who cannot trim their sheep are the 

 ones who protest against this practice. If some 

 one should undertake to stop sheep trimming in 

 England he would be ridiculed, since the English, 

 as a rule, excel in this kind of work and take great 

 pride in bringing a sheep before the judge that is 

 not only well fed, but also carries its best fitted 

 suit of clothes on its body. It does not make much 

 difference to a good judge how well a sheep may 

 be trimmed, as he understands the proper hand- 



