RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 



Amenia, who was known to his associates as Saxony 

 Swift, went through this and neighboring counties, buy- 

 ing and trading both wool and sheep. 



The home manufacture of wool is as follows : When 

 the shad bush was in blossom, the sheep should be 

 sheared. This was done by the men, the boys attending 

 to the preliminary washing and having great larks 

 dragging the reluctant sheep into the water and giving 

 it a good scrubbing— often getting wetter than the 

 sheep. On the clean barn floor the shearer took his 

 seat and skilfully held the struggling victim with his 

 feet and legs while he clipped the fleece with the spring 

 shears, which, by the by, have altered in pattern scarcely 

 a whit in two hundred years. When the flock was 

 sheared, the wool was scoured with lye to remove the 

 yelk; then, before carding, was slightly oiled to aid in 

 straightening the fibers. In the early days the wool was 

 dyed in the fleece, but after the establishment of the 

 carding mills the dyeing process was deferred until after 

 the yarn was spun. There is a tradition that the wool 

 of black sheep was especially in vogue with the Quakers 

 because it required none of the embellishment of the 

 dye-pot. 



The process of dyeing was sometimes a complicated 

 one, requiring manipulation of dye-pots and no end of 

 mordants. Blue was a favorite color, and the indigo 

 dye-pot was a part of the equipment of every kitchen. 



C9o] 



