526 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK iv 



ance which its oily naturie opposes to the rain, while it promotes the 

 growth of the wool, and also imparts to it a greater degree of 

 softness. 



The clipping, or shearing, of sheep is performed in three ways, and a 

 barn, or a small shady paddock, is chosen as the scene of operation. 

 The first and most ancient way is longitudinally from head to tail ; but 

 this mode of operating is attended with considerable difficulty, and is 

 not always well executed. The second, and improved method consists 

 in cutting circularly round the body of the animal, the beauty of which 

 is by this means supposed to be increased, while the work is more 

 uniformly and closely executed. The shearer holds the animal under 

 him, either with his knee, or left arm, and clips the wool with a spring- 

 shear, which he is enabled to manage with one hand, and thus to per- 

 form the operation without assistance. The entire fleece is removed, 

 without any separation of the different parts of it, and rolled up, and the 

 different qualities are afterwards sorted by the wool-stapler; but pre- 

 viously to the sheep being handed over to the shearer it is a good 

 practice to clip off all coarse and kempy wool from the hips, legs, poll, 

 and forehead, and keep it apart from the rest of the wool. This is 

 particularly necessary to be observed in the shearing of lambs : for, in 

 lambs' wool, if the coarse parts and kemps are suffered to mix with 

 the fine, they never can be sorted out, and must spoil any fabric to 

 which the wool may subsequently be applied, because the kemps will 

 not take a dye. Great care should be taken, in shearing, not to give 

 the wool a second cut, which would materially injure and waste the 

 fleece. 



The third method is by the use of clipping machines driven by 

 steam or other motive power than hand. 



More than one machine for this purpose has been introduced, and 

 found to answer well. The comparatively small flocks in England do 

 not necessitate any such means, but in Australia and the Argentine, 

 where manual labour is scarcer and flocks are larger, mechanical shear- 

 ing has been successfully adopted. By means of the Burgon shearer 

 (fig. 134) a 12-stone sheep may be shorn in 5 minutes, the work being 

 thoroughly done with regard to neatness and freedom from injury to 

 the sheep and wool. An oil-engine of 2-horse power is sufficient to 

 keep the machine going. The overhead driving gear actuates a core 

 passing inside a flexible tube or shield, and is connected with the 

 shears or cutters, which are on the principle of the horse-clipper, and 

 can be worked at any angle that may be convenient. Messrs. Burgon 

 & Ball, Malm Bridge, Sheffield, are the makers. Another sheep-shearing 

 machine a pedal power sheep shearer and horse clipper combined with 

 grinder is that of the Barton-Gillette Horse Clipping and Sheep 

 Shearing Company Limited, 103, New Oxford Street, London. At the 

 Royal Agricultural Society's Show at Maidstone, in 1899, a silver medal 

 was awarded to it " for improvements in pedal power sheep shearing 

 machine, comprising counter balances and ball bearings in shears." 



When shorn, the fleece should be carefully folded and rolled, begin- 

 ning at the hinder part, and folding in the side, or belly- wool, as the 



