CHAP. IV. SHEEP WASHING. 525 



it. The new wool will have more time to get ahead before the next 

 winter approaches, and the animal, being more thoroughly covered, will 

 be better protected from the midsummer sun. Nature, however, her- 

 self points out the proper time for sheep-shearing, and that is, when 

 the old wool has sufficiently separated from the skin, and the new 

 fleece is beginning to grow. The choice of time should not, therefore, 

 depend entirely on the weather, but the farmer should be guided by 

 the rise or growth of the new coat, which the shears cut in separating 

 the fleece. 



Of late years there has been much controversy as to the advantages 

 and disadvantages of washing sheep, and though some strong arguments 

 have been brought forward in favour of not washing, farmers as a rule 

 prefer to adhere to the common practice of washing. Accordingly, a 

 week or so before the sheep are required for shearing they are washed. If 

 they are not allowed a full week they may not be sufficiently dried, and, 

 worse still, the yolk ma}' not have risen, without which the wool will be 

 harsh, and there will be considerable loss of weight. The washing is 

 usually performed in some neighbouring stream, or even in a pond, by 

 men standing in the water, who often take cold and occasionally have 

 become seriously indisposed in consequence of the immersion. To 

 remedy this inconvenience, and also the abuses resulting from the care- 

 less manner in which the washers frequently do their work, it has been 

 humanely proposed to form a kind of passage through the water between 

 a double rail. The sheep walk into this by means of a slope cut in 

 the bank at one end, and come out by means of another at the other end, 

 with a depth sufficient for them to swim at one part. The breadth 

 need not be more than 6 or 7 feet. At opposite sides of this passage, 

 where the depth is just sufficient for the water to flow over the sheep's 

 back, may be placed two casks, either fixed or loaded, and a man may 

 stand dry in each of them. The sheep being in the water between 

 them, as it swims through the deep part, is seized first by one and then 

 by the other, and thoroughly washed. It then escapes up the other slope 

 into a clean pen, or a dry pasture, or rick-yard, where it remains for a few 

 days, until it is thoroughly dry, and fit for the shearers. Regularly con- 

 structed sheep-washing tanks, &c., have long been used on many farms. 



The lambs are first separated from the other sheep, and confined in 

 distinct pens. A few planks will form a bridge to the tubs, and there 

 should be a pen at the first mouth of the water, where the sheep may be 

 soaking a few minutes before he is driven to the washers. There is, 

 however, generally speaking, no necessity for all this preparation. The 

 sheep is caught by a man on shore, and thrown into the arms of the 

 first washer, who performs his part, and then hands the animal over to 

 another, from whom, the cleansing being deemed completed, the animal 

 escapes and eagerly swims ashore. 



In washing the sheep, the use of water containing chalk should be 

 avoided ; for this substance decomposes the yolk of the wool, which is 

 an animal soap, and the natural defence of the fleece. Wool often 

 washed in calcareous water becomes rough and brittle. The yolk is 

 exceedingly useful to the sheep in cold and wet seasons by the resist- 



