Essay on Sheep, 95 



ihetn to a table, after laying them on one side; 

 but this I think would subject them to some 

 risk if they should struggle, and at all events 

 will require twice tying, as the sheep must be 

 'turned. I contemplate trying the next year 

 the tying the fore and hind legs to a bar wtih 

 two cross pieces; the bar to be about eighteen 

 inches long, and the cross pieces six. This 

 would leave the sheep in their natural posture, 

 with their legs a little stretched out; a rod of 

 iron, with a curvature at each end, would per- 

 haps be still better, because, being smaller, it 

 would be less in the way of the shears. The 

 shearing of a common long-woolled sheep is a 

 matter of little difficulty, the fleece being light, 

 and the wool not so valuable as to occasion any 

 great attention to shearing close. To those that. 

 have short-wooUed, and particularly Merino 

 sheep, I would recommend not to trust the 

 shears to careless hands, or by any means to 

 hurry their workmen ; on the contrary, to re- 

 mind them constantly that the wool is suflicl- 

 ently valuable to compensate for the time spent 

 in taking it off, and the sheep too valuable to 

 be maimed. To shear one Merino sheep pro- 

 perly will take more time than to shear three 

 long-woolled sheep. Let the master then show 

 no impatience if he would have his work well 



