182 MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP. 



front of the neck, and his right toe being brought to the 

 ground a httle behind and below the poll ; the head and 

 neck of the sheep are thus confined by his right leg, while 

 lie uses his right hand to shear the wool from the hind-quar- 

 ter. In this way the clips of the shears will appear in con- 

 centric rings round the body of the sheep. The dirty por- 

 tions of wool about the tail are then removed by the shears, 

 and kept by themselves ;* the outside of the fleece is folded 

 inwards, beginning at the sides, and narrowing the whole 

 fleece into a stripe about two feet wide. The stripe is then 

 rolled firmly up from the tail and towards the neck, the wool 

 of which is stretched out and twisted into a rope, and wound 

 round the fleece to give it a cylindrical shape." 



IxVTERIM BETWEEN WASHING AXD SHEARING, ETC. 



The interim between washing and shearing should depend 

 on the state of the weather ; if cool and cloudy, the yolk or 

 oil will not appear so readily, a substance, as the reader has 

 been informed in a previous part of the work, which is high- 

 ly necessary to confer softness and brilliancy to the wool. 

 If the weather has been sunny, from a week to ten days 

 from washing will be quite long enough ; and when the 

 work of shearing begins and is proceeding, the temperature, 

 in the Northern States at least, cannot be too warm. But 

 there are thousands who violate this, and thereby reap sad 

 consequences to themselves, by the death of many of their 

 sheep, which arises from the extreme sensitiveness of the 

 animal to cold immediately after its fleece has been shorn. 

 To guard against this evil as much as possible, it will not 

 be safe to begin shearing, in this latitude, before the 1st of 

 June, and will be yet safer, generally, to defer it a few days 

 longer. After waiting till the last moment, if a cold rain 

 storm should occur during the process, those which have 

 been shorn should be put under cover without a moment's 

 delay, as death to many of them will infallibly follow, if it is 

 neglected. The extreme sufl'ering of sheep under such cir- 

 cumstances is inconceivable, and no one, unless wholly de- 

 void of humanity, to say nothing of regard for his pockets, 

 will refrain to fly to their immediate relief. Veteran flock- 

 masters will duly appreciate these remarks, as there are few 



* This is exceptionable ; it should be done before anything else. — Au- 

 thor Am. Shepherd. 



