﻿48 BULLETIN 20, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



METHOD OF SHEARING. 



While it is impractical to tell exactly how to shear a sheep, there 

 being several methods of procedure, the following precautions are 

 worthy of mention. 



The sheep should be handled humanely and held so that they will 

 struggle as little as possible. The skin should be kept stretched 

 beneath the shears, so as to avoid unnecessary cutting. Special 

 care should be taken in shearing the ewes about the udder and the 

 ram about the sheath. 



The shears should be kept close to the body of the sheep and not 

 allowed to run off at a tangent, as this makes necessary a second 

 cutting of the wool. The fleece should not be broken, but kept entire 

 throughout the operation. After removing, it should be spread out 

 in a clean place, cut side down, and as much as possible of the foreign 

 material thrown out. The tags should be separated from the remain- 

 der of the fleece and placed by themselves. Loose parts of the fleece 

 should be placed in the center, ragged edges turned in, then the 

 fleece should be rolled up, cut side out, and tied with appropriate 

 twine. It should not be rolled too tightly, and too much twine 

 should not be used. Once around the fleece each way is sufficient. 

 Wool boxes should not be used for tying. Their use makes attractive 

 fleeces, but the wool is tied up too tightly and wool buyers discrimi- 

 nate against it in this condition. It is important that the right kind 

 of twine be used. A light, smooth, hard twine should be used that 

 will not become entangled in the fleece, and thus leave fibers in the 

 wool. Sisal is very objectionable from this standpoint. The fiber 

 from this twine gets into the wool and is woven into the cloth. It 

 will not take the dye, and consequently it must be picked out by hand. 

 The use of sisal has caused a loss of thousands of dollars, and many 

 buyers refuse to purchase wool that has been tied with this twine. 

 Others cut the price from 4 to 5 cents per pound for its use. Much 

 wool twine, which is objectionable in no other way, is much coarser 

 than is necessary. Linen or paper twines are excellent for tying, 

 the objection to paper twine being that it is stiff and difficult to knot. 

 A string from 7 to 8 feet long is sufficient for tying an ordinary fleece. 



WOOL SACKS. 



The use of better wool sacks is one way in which the condition of 

 the domestic clip can be improved. Australia is much more pro- 

 gressive in this respect. The sacks used there are smooth, free from 

 fiber, and occasionally lined with paper. On the other hand, Ameri- 

 can wool comes to the market in the cheapest possible sacks, and 

 frequently they are not even shaken out before being filled. Many 

 sacks come to market containing only about half as many fleeces as 



