AIT OLD CUSTOM

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2674, 21 January 1916, Page 10

AIT OLD CUSTOM

"y ' ! Ai relic-oftha past in the-fonnj of a: /•shecp-washmg .Kattery ' lias just' been - -added to the Invercargill museum. by flio Hon. Dr. ■M'Nab. Thia was the. mvfention JOIIII M'Queeir, ; * , prominent member, of _ the Farmers' iUnion (says fclio "Southland Times"). In the early days it .appears-to have :'heen the custom with the larger runholders to scour the'wool on tha sheep's ■back. •' .The', water was' heated .in huge hdlers,v;soap,;was..mixed with' ■ it, and ; a about' l eight sheep was lowered into the liquid ; and the anuriSlf "thoronghly soaked in tho soapy liquid. They hoisted out of one recoptacle into another, and finally each sheep was lowered_ through the rinsing battery arid received the final Swashing from a double-circular jet which played all round the animal as ho was lowered through it: , The then turned out into a,,cleany ; pflddock: for three days, and- ;tlien. shorn; r ill; older to keep down tho dust caused by the trampling feet bf so-inany thousands of sheep a man was kept busy , all day watering the gateways .and around the ■ yards. Mr. M'Queen tells •of one clip' •"* .that was disposed of for 2sJ6d'.-per lb.' As tho laud became 1 settled and the ■ newcomers clamoured for roads, woolscouring on the animal had to be aban- : dbned, owng to . the extra,v amount.^of . dirt in the wool, and with more; scien- , iJlne methods of scouring it could bo done more cheaply'at Home, as the byproducts mot the-greater, part of the •' oxponses. ■ ■•; -