PACKIKG WOOL. 



163 



with a thin saw, to hold the ends of the strings. A hook is made, 

 (e, fig. 58), of hard wood, one inch thick and fourteen inches be- 

 tween the jaws, and the box is done. 



To use it, first fix the strings from the cuts tf, <?, d, d, in the di- 

 rection of the dotted lines on fig. 58. Lay the fleece with the 



clipped side down- 

 wards on the 

 boards, bring up 

 the sides, which 

 secure by placing 

 across them the 

 hook, as in fig. 58; 

 then close the ends, 

 which the springs 

 will keep in their 

 places ; tie the ends 

 of each string tight- 

 ly over the wool; 

 then remove the 

 hook, and the box 

 will fall back, leav- 

 ing the fleece tight- 

 ly packed and tied. 

 Nothing should 

 be tied up in the 

 fleece, nor should 

 coarse twine nor too 

 much twine be used. 

 All tags and waste 

 wool should be 

 scrupulously kept 

 out of the fleece, as 

 it should not only 

 look good, but 

 should be good. 

 This observing of 

 little things is one 

 of the ways in which wool growing is made a profitable business. 

 Tag locks and dirty wool should be washed in a tub with soft soap 

 and cold water and sold by itself. The soft soap tends to give tub- 

 washed wool a mellow handling free from harshness. 

 ^ When the grower ships his wool to a distant market, he necessa- 

 rily packs the fleeces in bales. The bale should be solidly packed 



Fig. 59. PACKING WOOL. 



