Wool Production 237 
pen. In some sheds two shearers use one catching pen 
and in others each shearer has his own. The door leading 
from the shearer’s stand to the catching pen is immediately 
back of the shearer and the opening of the chute leading 
to the tally pens is directly beside it. The shearing 
board and skirter’s tables and the classer’s table are all 
one room. The light of this part of the shed comes from 
above and is plentiful. The bins for the various classes 
of wool have doors on the side opposite from the classer’s 
table, which can be locked. This prevents the packing 
of any wool until the classer thinks that it is sufficiently 
cooled. The wool room is located back of the bins and 
is for the storage of wool after it is packed. The counting 
or tally pens are outside the shed. These are pens to 
hold the sheep after shearing. At regular times during 
the day the sheep are here counted and the shearer receives 
credit on the basis of this count. 
According to the Australian method, the sheep before 
shearing are divided into the following-bands: rams, 
wethers, wet ewes, dry ewes, and hoggets or sheep to 
be shorn the first time. The reason for this division of 
the flock at this time is because there are differences in 
the fleeces that come from these classes of sheep. For 
instance, the belly wool from the wether is far inferior to 
that of the ewe, due to the different arrangement of the 
sex organs. The fleece of the wet ewe, or one suckling 
a lamb, is inferior to that of a dry ewe. Hoggets have a 
tapering fiber, and consequently their wool is more valu- 
able, as it will spin to a finer yarn. 
On arriving at the shed, each band is placed in the sweat- 
ing room for two or three hours. The temperature of this 
room should be such that the yolk, or natural oil of the 
sheep, will travel outward through the internal channels 
