182 FINE WOOL SILEEP HUSBANDRY. 
Bp. 
Tue Woot Press. 
This article has been so much improved recently, 
and that improvement is so little known, that I am 
induced to call attention to it. Most wool-growers 
are acquainted with the excellent press previously in 
use, consisting of a trough about four feet long and 
ten or twelve inches in height and breadth, set on 
legs, with a stationary cross-piece at one end, and a 
movable one drawn towards it by a strap and lever, 
with slits for twine, &c. This does up wool more 
rapidly and vastly better than any person can do it 
by hand. But in the case of large fleeces it requires 
too much weight applied to the lever for the operator 
conveniently to press it down and hold it down with 
one foot, while standing with the other in a conve- 
nient place for tying up the fleece. Several contri- 
vances were applied to remedy this difficulty, but 
finally the true one was hit upon by Mr. James Ged- 
des, of Fairmount, N. Y. By substituting a crank, 
ratchet-wheel, pair of rollers, and the necessary straps 
in the place of the lever arrangement, even a small 
boy is strong enough to compress the fleece, and the 
ratchet-wheel and dog will cause it to be held com- 
pressed as long as is wanted by the tier; the crank, 
being then reversed, carries back the sliding cross- 
piece to the opposite end of the trough agein. It is 
now apparently a perfect machine. No patent has 
been taken out for it. The machines are excellently 
manufactured by Storrs Wilber, of Fairmount, N. Y., 
and cost from $6 to $7. If Mr. Wilber should leave, 
