SHEARING SHEEP BY MACHINERY. There have been many attempts to perfect machines for shearing sheep. They have been all either partial or total failures. Lately, how ever, a machine has been invented in Australia, and after two years' trial it has been pronounced a success. The Mark Lane Express, one of the foremost agricultural journals of Great Britain, speaking of this machine,, says it consists of a length of shafting facing the shearing floor, minutes. In this connection we see no reason why such a machine may not be practically ap plied on the great sheep ranches of the United States. We also think there is room for im provement in the system of washing and shear ing followed in many parts of this country. The smaller flocks are generally shorn by gangs of shearers, who start fair enough, but who get out of their regular engagements as the work goes on, simply because A has washed his sheep earlier than he expected, whilst B has not washed his so soon as he expected, and D has not washed his at all. The weather after washing makes a great difference to the date of shearing, and thus it often falls out that A's sheep are shorn too late, and B's too early ; in 'either case it would have been better had the sheep not been washed at all. In fact we are decidedly of opin: 'ion that it would he economy to give up the practice of sheep-washing entirely. It would be supposed that the finer wools of Australia would pay for washing, because of freightage on, say, one-third extra weight, but of late years this idea has been dispelled. It pays to *ash
the finer fleeces on the sheep's back with warm - water in an elaborate bath, but for the rest it appears that, whereas, in 1869, the proportion of wool exported in the grease from Australia amounted to only 30 per cent. of the whole, in 1886 it amounted to 70 per cent. of the whole. In the United States and in the La Plata districts the increase of the wool marketed in the grease of late years has been very marked. In the former country the wool crop for 1886 was re turned as 261,469,650 pounds, of which 52,874, 524 pounds were washed wool, and 208,595,126 pounds greasy wool. The principle of selling greasy wool must, therefore, be right, and we think the practice will commend itself to our flock-masters. If middlemen object, let stepsbe taken to sell direct to the manufacturers. Mean while, shearing by mechanical means is worthy of more extended trial than it has yet had in this country, for the idea, is not a novel one. The principle is one which only needs perfection in detail, to which - the Australian invention would seem to have , more nearly approached than anything by which it has been preceded.