CHAPTER XVI. 



STTMMEK MAUAaEMENT. 



MODE OF "WASHING SHEEP UTILITY OP WASHIITG CONSID- 



EEBD CUTTING THE HOOFS TIME BETWEEN' WASHING 



AND SHEAEING SHEAEING STUBBLE SHEAEING AND 



TEIMMING SHEAEING LAMBS AND SHEAEING SHEEP SEMI- 

 ANNUALLY DOING UP WOOL — - FRAUDS IN DOING UP 



WOOL STOEING WOOL PLACE FOE SELLING WOOL 



WOOL DEPOTS AND COMMISSION STOEES SACKING WOOL. 



Modes of Washing Sheep. — Sheep are now washed, 

 in the Northern States, somewhat earlier than formerly — 

 usually between the first and fifteenth of June — as early 

 as the warmth of the streams will admit. When it used 

 to be considered an object to sell clean wool, it was the 

 common practice to wash fine-wooled sheep under the fall of 

 a mill-dam ; or to make an artificial fall by damming up a 

 small stream, conducting its water a few feet in a race, and 

 having it fall thence a couple of feet into a tub or washing vat. 

 The vat was a strong box, large enough to hold four sheep 

 at a time. It was from thre6 and a half to four feet deep, 

 about two and a half feet of it rising above the surrounding 

 platform for the washers, and the remaining portion being 

 sunk in the ground. The sheep were penned close at hand, 

 and the Iambs immediately taken out to prevent their 

 being trampled under foot. Two washers generally worked 

 together, and a catcher brought the sheep to them. If the 

 sheep were dry, four were usually placed in the vat together, 

 so that two were soaking while two were being washed. 

 Every part of each fleece was exposed for a short time to the 

 fuU force of the descending current. The dirtier parts, the 

 breech, belly and neck, were thoroughly squeezed, (by 

 pressing the wool together in masses between the pahps of 

 the hands,) and these operations continued untU the water 

 ran entirely clear from the fleece. The animal was then 



