HOW SHEEP SHOULD BE SHEARED.

Dunstan Times, Issue 758, 27 October 1876, Page 4

HOW SHEEP SHOULD BE SHEARED.

Sheep should not be shorn until the '■weather has become warm and settled. ’ The common shears with a thumb piece ’upon one side, and an easy spring not stronger "than’Will I 'be sufficient to ■make the shears open freely when releaaed from pressure, are the best tool for 'the ‘shearer, Several new and patented shears have been introduced,; which the inventors' claim, may be ■ u-ed by inexperienced persons without ■danger of cutting the sheep’s skin, A trial of the shears does not support this claim, and the common shears are not yet superseded by any of these so- ' called improvements. The shears should be brought to a .fine, sharp edge upon a line oil-stone. The bevel of the cutting edge should bo about 35°, or somewhat more than that of a common pair of scissors, and less than that of a ■plane iron. The floor of the shearing-room should be kept perfectly free from straw, chaff, or litter, and if a boy is kept constantly at work with a broom in his hand removing dirt, tags, and rubbish, his time will be well employed. The shearer has ’better control over the sheep when on the floor than on the bench, and the handling is not the same under both circumstances. In shearing on a bench the shearer catches the sheep by the left hind leg, backs it toward the bench, and'rolls it over upon it. He then sets the sheep on its rump, and standing with his left foot upon the bench, lays the sheep's neck across his left knee, with its right side against his body. The two fore legs are then taken under the left arm, and the fleece is opened up and down along the centre of the belly hv small short clips with the shears. The left sides of the belly and brisket are then sheared. The tags are clipped from the inside of the hind legs and about the breech, and thrown upon the floor. They should be swept up at once and gathered into a basket, and by no means allowed to mingle with the fleece wool. The hreech is then shorn as far as can be reached. The wool from the point of the shoulder is then clipped as far as the butt of the ear. The wool is shorn around the carcass and neck to the foretop, proceeding down the side, taking the fore leg and going as far over the back as possible, which will be two or three inches past the backbone When the joint of the thigh (the stifle), is reached, the shears are inserted at the inside of the hock and the wool shorn a-ound the leg back to the thigh joint. The wool over the rump is then shorn past the tail. The sheep is now completely shorn on one side, and two or three inches over on the other side, along the hack from neck to tail. It is then ' taken hv the left hind leg, and swung around with tire back to the shearer, leaving some wool beneath the left hip, which will ease the position of the ■ animal and keep it move quiet. The wool is then shorn from the head and neck down the right side. The fleece is now separated taking the legs and brisket on the way. The job is comrdeted by clipping the tags and loose locks from the legs. To shear on the floor, the sheep is set upon its rump, with the head thrown hack beneath the left arm of the shearer, and its back toward him. The wool is then opened at, the nech and clipped downward in regular lines on the right side, from belly to back, and over the spine as far as possible on the other side, in much the same manner as has already been described. The sheep is then laid on its shorn side, and the shearer, kneeling on the left knee and straddling the sheep, with the left foot laid over the sheep’s neck, removes the fleece from the left side, and finishes by removing taglocks from the legs and scrotum. In had shearing, the greatest injury to the fleece takes place on the back, and is caused by the operator not raising his hand,, so as to keep tho points of the shears close down to the skin. This is known as “cutting through”: it takes place when tho sheep is being shorn on one side, and in shearing over the hack, the points of the sheers cut neaily or quite through the fleece, from the inside to the out; then when the animal is being shorn on the other or ' “ turning-out” side, the shears are are again pointed upward, and the cuts on the first and last side over-lap each other, causing the fleece to part in two halves all along the back. No good shearer makes second cuts; the fact that wool has been left hv the first cut proves that the shears have not been held properly, and the wool removed by a second cut being perfectly useless entails a loss on the manufacturer, and greatly lowers the reputation of the brands in the markets Cutting through, and a habit of continually making second cuts, are the most objectionable characteristics of the unskilful shearer A sheep may be shorn so c'ose as to satisfy the. most, exacting employer and yet it may he shorn very badly, and the, only conclusive test, of good shearing or the reverse is to he found, not. on the outside of the animal, but on (he inside of the, fleece