SHEEP SHEARING BY MACHINERY.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 797, 20 June 1870, Page 4

SHEEP SHEARING BY MACHINERY.

j Sontti Aiistraltan JJegiater.J Atf American citizen, Mr P. O. jßfacornber, ha« produced a sheepwhearing machine guaranteed to be an effective substitute the profes pional shearer, The discoverer, in a letter dated Paris, December, 1869, acknowledged his indebtedness to Mr Q. A. Anstey for first suggesting the principle of the invention, so that jSouth Australia has a special interest in its success. Although many attempts have been made to supersede hand clipping, the shearing hitherto has triumphed over mechanical ingenuity. apparatus have been from time to time tried, and Jiave always proved detective 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 e-timated that it will make 6000 cuts per minute, and per form its work with as much accuracy and completeness as rapidity. Tt was at the Pain Exhibition of 1867 that Mr Anstey first called attention to the subjectj and Mr Macornber was not slow to follow up the hint given. Within a very short time he had completed his model and taken put his patent in the United States. What further steps he has taken may best be gathered from his letter of 7th December last, already alluded to, He says:—"l have not been unmindful of the hints you gave me jn your letter of 10th August, and as far as possible I have endeavored to follow your advice. I have entered into a contract with Messrs Gwynne & Co., Essex street Works, £trand, London, to manufacture the machine for England, Australia, New Zealand, and Cape, and they now have one specimen to exhibit and operate with, all the patents having been secured. I very much ■wish you to see the machine, and test its ability to meet a want which has so long been felt throughout the world, Already many Australians have seen it here, and having tried it by actually wool with it, Jiave unanimously approved of it. I have bargained with a gentleman Jargely engaged in agricultural im-plement-making here to manufacture them fot' France, and although many have been already sold, only a few have yet been finished. The sale of , the machine and its introduction into Australia I have committed entirely to Messrs Gwynne and Co. We have had a rather rough drawing made and lithographed, and 1 send you a copy. Will you be good enough to let me know your opinion about it, and especially if you know how many sheep shearers are probably necessary to shear all the «hee]) in Australia by the present method, and what are the wages paid per day including board; also how long the season lasts?" Acpompanying thi* letter is an intimation from Mr Anstey that he has since seen the machine in action, and that Mr Sch wartzc, the well-known wool-broker, has obtained a professional opinion upon it, This recommends the new invention as being simple and ingenious, but questions whether in its present form the apparatus will supersede the shears for Australian sheep. There is also given a testimonial from Mr Henry Boynton, described as one of the largest wool-growers in the United States. In it the following passages occur; —« There can be no more doubting that sheep can be well and rapidly shorn by machinery, and your invention must take its place among the labor-saving contrivances of the age I tried it upon our heavy-fleeced Vermont merinoes, the raost'difficult sheep to shear of any in the world. The machine was put into the hands of men wholly unused to it, and yet, after a litttle clipping round the neck and legs of the sheep, the fleeces were taken off in five minutes. I think I hazard nothing *n predicting that in experienced hands the machine will shear a sheep in three minutes. With one man to catch and prepare the sheep and one to operate the machine, I confidently expect to see it take off one hundred and fifty fleeces a clay. Among the lighteivfleeoed aheep pi 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 degree of closeness and smoothness." Without placing too much reliance upon this statement as coming from a Yankee, and propagated by those having a pecuniary interest in the machine, there is enough in it to create |an interest in the discovery, and a curiosity to see it tiied in Australia under the auspices of practical men. 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. With regard to the queries at the end o' Mi' Macornber's letter, the gentleman who has been kind enough to supply us with the documents from which we ha\e quoted, estimates that thare were in Australia and New Zealand about forty-five million sheep. The cost of shearing per 100 may be set down at 20/ to 22/, including 16/ foi wages, and from 7/ to 8/ for rations. An experienced shearer can in the season of six weeks manipulate about 1500 sheep, so the aggregate of men required may be set 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 machines, if universally introduced, and each worked by a man and a boy, or by two men, would employ nearly as larjje a number of hands as are now engaged during shearing season. Of

course if the astonishingly rapid rate of shearing a sheep in every three minutes be achieved, the work will be got through in much less time ttian at present The great advantage of this apparatus to the sheep farmer will consist in its capability to supersede skilled labor. This will be a very great desideratum, for the demand for thoroughly efficient workmen in this branch of business frequently exceeds the supply. The machine will, if it fulfils expectations, give permanent deliverance from this unfortunate state of things, and, in the long run, the shearers will not suffer through having so formidable a competitor introduced upon the run.