180 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
SHEARING COTS WOLDS 
[copyright secuhsd.i 
AT HERDSDALE . — Drawn and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
dry. Two days' exposure is necessary before 
they are ready for stacking for final curing. A 
stake, pointed at both ends, and seven feet long, 
is thrust into the ground, rails are laid on the 
surface to prevent contact with the earth, and 
the vines are heaped around the stake in a tall, 
narrow stack, so that the air can easily pene- 
trate and cure the vines. Straw is placed over 
the top to shed rain, and two weeks are required 
to thoroughly cure the crop. Mold or damp- 
ness, which would injure the color, is to be 
carefully avoided. On the brightness and light- 
ness of the color the value in a great measure 
depends. When cured, the nuts are separated 
by hand generally, but this is a slow process, 
two to four bushels daily being the work of an 
experienced hand. A thrashing machine is 
used by large growers in North Carolina, which 
thrasiies with two horses 100 to 200 bushels in 
a day. The vines make a very excellent fod- 
der, but when spread on the ground and plowed 
in, and a dressing of lime given annually, with 
some fertilizer at planting, the crop may be 
grown successively for several years. It is not 
probable that this crop would retain its present 
market price if its production was materially 
increased, the demand being but limited ; and, 
in view of its comparatively costly culture, 
the average yield of 30 to 50 bushels per acre 
does not seem to make it a very enticing crop. 
The season required for perfect ripening is 
long, and it is very doubtful if the nuts could 
be matured further north than Virginia in the 
East and Kansas in the West. Nuts of excel- 
lent quality were grown in Kansas last season, 
but the bulk of the crop is raised in East Virginia 
and North Carolina, in the localities adjacent 
to tide-water. Our correspondents in Wiscon- 
sin, Michigan, and other Northern States will 
see that this crop is not suited to their climate. 
Shearing Cotswolds. 
Our illustration represents the shearing of a 
flock of Cotswolds at Herdsdale, the farm of 
our Mr. L. A. Chase, at Florence, Mass. The 
operation of shearing, although it looks a some- 
what rough one, may be made by a careful hand 
very easy to the sheep. General directions for 
shearing were given last month on page 140. 
Some care is necessary in handling heavy sheep, 
especially the ewes which have not yet had 
their lambs. The patience and docility of the 
sheep beneath the operation of shearing is pro- 
verbial, but still we have seen very unnecessarily 
rough usage given to them. Possibly no better 
shears can be found than the old-fashioned 
ones, and a skillful shearer will make as few 
cuts with them as with any of the new-fangled 
ones with patent guards and other preventives 
against cutting, which when used are found to 
be no guards at all. The operation is com- 
menced at the neck of the sheep, the shearer 
standing behind it, as shown in the illustration. 
The remainder of the work is better described 
b} r the picture than it could be by a page of de- 
scription. It is therefore only necessary that 
the positions of the figures be studied, and they 
will tell their own story. Loug-woolud sheep 
have a rather tender skin, and if the weather 
after shearing should be wet and cold, it would 
be advisable that they be kept up until the)' be- 
come used to the loss of their coats. If any 
signs of cold or running at the nose appear after 
clipping, it is well to smear their noses with 
pine-tar, which they will lick off, and thus take 
sufficient internally to have a remedial effect. 
