172 STUBBLE SHEAEIlfG AND TRIMMING. 



next should go back, pick up every " frib," and sweep the 

 place so that it will he ready for another sheep.* 



Stubble Sheaeing and Teimming. — If wool is left half 

 an inch long or more at shearing, it wiU, of course, (in the 

 case of all varieties which do not annually shed their wool,) 

 retain that extra length through the ensuing year. This is 

 called " stubble shearing ;" and is sometimes resorted to by 

 the sellers of Merino sheep to deceive purchasers in relation 

 to the actual length of the staple. The sellers are always 

 ready to make or produce affidavits, if need be, of the time 

 of shearing — but the mode of shearing is not stated in these 

 interesting documents! Indeed, thousands of unsuspecting 

 buyers never thiak to ask that question. "Stubbling" is par- 

 ticularly convenient to convert an unimproved Merino into 

 an improved one in appearance, by doubling the length of 

 wool about the head, legs, belly, etc., where the former is 

 most deficient. 



" Trimming " is a little higher branch of the same art. It 

 is " cutting a sheep into form," by shortening the wool where 

 there is over-fullness, and leaving it longer where there is a 

 lack of fullness, so that the sheep takes many of its leading 

 points — such as fullness in the crops, straightness of back, 

 etc. — quite as much from the shears as from nature. This is 

 practiced by exhibitors for prizes in the show yards of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society of England !f 



" Trimming " has entirely the advantage on the score of 

 respectability of association, for " stubbling " in this country 

 is not practiced by any but the acknowledged Bedouins " of 

 the profession!" Both are disreputable frauds. 



Shearing Lambs ajsd Sheaeing Sheep Semi -Annually. 

 -^When lambs are yeaned, as Mr. Chamberlain's Silesians 

 are, in the early part of winter, and fed up to a large size 

 before shearing, there is no impropriety in shearing them in 

 the spring with their dams ; but there can be no good reason 

 for shearing spring lambs when two or three months old. 



* I once knew a powerftil Englishman who would thus tend twelve good shearers, 

 do up the wool beautifully, (this was when the fleeces were done up entirely by hand,) 

 and bring ont the sheep so fast that the shearers were constantly hurried by him I 

 Most who both catch and do up the wool do not tend more than half a dozen shearers, 

 and want a boy to pick up the fribs. 



+ So says the Editor of the Mark-Lane Express (by impilication,) in his paper of 

 January 19th, 1863, and he there entirely dissents from the opinion of a correspondent 

 who asserts that the animals which take the prizes are those which are " least cut 

 Into form." 



