186 MANAGEMENT OF SHEEP. 



tlie shopmen, " goods tidily kept are half sold." This applies 

 with equal propriety to everything saleable by the farmer, 

 and to nothing with greater I'orce than his wool. They are 

 too prone to get along with this matter in a " rough and tumble" 

 style, doing up the fleeces untidily, and then depositing them 

 in dark and uninviting places for exhibition. If wool has 

 been well cleansed, it will not be ashamed of too much light; 

 if only half washed, a dark corner only aggravates its ap- 

 pearance. There is an art in disposing wool for sale, which 

 enables the flock-master to put his best foot out, and yet be 

 guiltless of artifice to deceive the buyer ; on the contrary, 

 increases his opportunity to judge acctirately of everything 

 appertaining to condition and quality. 



The adoption of the following will carry out the writer's 

 views and practice : — 



First, against one, or all sides — if necessary — of the wool- 

 loft, let four or five tiers of fleeces bo placed upon top of each 

 other, as nearly alike as to size as possible ; the next pile, 

 one tier of fleeces less, and so on diminishing the succeed- 

 ing piles one tier, till the last is reduced to a single one. In 

 this way, the fleeces represent piazza steps, or perhaps more 

 properly, the ascending seats of an amphitheatre. It will 

 readily be conceived, that if the fleeces have been neatly 

 rolled and adjusted, the whole is not only attractive, but saves 

 the buyer much time in overhauling it, which is unavoidable 

 if disposed of in a bin, or piled in any other form. This 

 constitutes one of those " inviting appearances" which the 

 world delight to gaze on, and which the world are some- 

 times disposed to pay a little beyond the intrinsic value for 

 the sake of possessing. Let the flock-master honestly tag 

 his sheep and cleanse his fleeces, and put nothing within 

 them but the " clean thing," and the inviting scene before the 

 buyer cannot mislead, or deceive him afterwards. 



This leads to an exposure of other " cheating practices" 

 of wool-growers, alluded to by Mr. Samuel Lawrence, under 

 the head of " washing." In a communication to the writer he 

 states the following : — " The practice of enclosing in the 

 fleece clippings, &c., is too common, and should be discour- 

 aged by manufacturers. I have known sin ounces of this 

 useless stuff taken from one fleece. There is another prac- 

 tice equally disgraceful — the use of five to twenty times as 

 much twine as is necessary. A short time since I took sixty- 

 six feet of large twine from one fleece." 



