Sheep-Shearing by Machinery.

Cromwell Argus, Issue I, 8 June 1870, Page 5

Sheep-Shearing by Machinery.

{South Australian Register.) An American citizen, Mr D. O. Maoornber, has produced a sheep-shearing machine guaranteed to be an effective substitute to the professional shearer. The discoverer, in a letter dated Paris, December, 1869, acknowledges his indebtedness to Mr G-. A. Anstey for first suggesting the principle of . the invention, so that South Australia has a special interest in its success. Although many attempts have been made to supersede haud-clipping, the shearing hitherto has triumphed over mechanical ingenuity. Different apparatus have been from time to time tried, and have come very near the accomplishment of tho end in view, but they have always proved defective in some point which was fatal to their general adoption. To judge by the testimonials and statements to hand, all obstacles have been overcome in connection with this new and simple machine, which has received the name of the American Patent Sheepshearer, It is estimated that it will make 6000 cuts per minute, and perform its work with as much accuracy and completeness as rapidity. * * * * A testimonial has been received from Mr Henry Boynton, one of the largest wool-growers in the In it the-following passages k'.-fissar ; There can be no more doubting tha#slfeep can be well and rapidly shorn by machinery, and your machine must take its place among the great laborsaving contrivances of the ago. I tried it upon our heavy fleeced Vermont merinos, the most difficult sheep to shear of any in the world. The machine was put into the hands of men wholly unused to it, and ye:, after a little clipping round the nock and legs of the sheep, tho fleeces were off in five or eight minutes. With one man to catch and prepare the sheep, and one to operate the machine, I confidently expect. it to take off 150 fleeces a day. Among the lighter-fleeced sheep of the West Texas, South America, and Australia, it will do more. The sheep leaves the machine with fewer cuts than generally result from the shearing, and the wool can be cut down to any desired degree of closeness and smoothness." It is impossible to describe the apparatus from the lithograph representation of it, and no explanation of its character and mode of working is furnished. The cost of shearing per 100 sheep may b3 set down at 235, including 16s for wages, aud from 7k to 8s for rations. An experienced shearer can in the season of six weeks manipulate about 1500 sheep, so that the aggregate of men required may be sot down at 30,000. We have, no means at hand of knowing the number of sheep runs in the colonies, but it is believed that tho machines, if universally introduced, and each worked by a man and a boy, or by two men, would employ nearly as large a number of hands as. are now engaged during the shearing soason. The greatsvantage of tho apparatus to the . • < ?MBp" farmer will consist in its capnhilit«|Hffpersecle skilled labour. This will bjriiirß«y great desideratum, for the demand iHs T :c»roughly efficient workmen in this brisߧ of the business frequently exceeds the ply. The machine, if it fulfils expectations, will give pormanent deliverance fronvtbia unfortuuate state of things, and dinthe long run the shearers will not suffer