THE PASSING OF THE "BLADES."

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 126, 20 February 1908, Page 4

THE PASSING OF THE "BLADES."

Years agq, when shearing, machines' were first introduced-amidst a ,mixed storm of approval and much disapprobation, the suggestion that tho day would come when tlio man. with tho." blades " (tlio hand shears) would become almost as extinct as tlio Dodo was laughed at. That time is now coming, and with a rapidity which is really surprising, bomo idea of tlio victorious march of the shearing machino is shown by tho report of tlio Wplsoloy Company, which has now boon, operating ill New Zealand for the past.sixteen years.: In .1902 this firm installed 142 stands into twenty-ono. shearing sheds ; and in tho next year. 243. stands into thirty sheds. In. 1904 the number of stands had increased to 467 ;fitt«l into sixty sheds, and in . 1905 615 stands in ninety sheds. . There was another, impetus in favour of machino shears in 1906, wlion another 149 sheds were -fitted, with 825 stands, while*in, 1907 tho incrcaso was.B62 stands in 169'slieds. Tho denionstra-. tion' in favour of" machines is most marked at tho present juncture, owing to. the difficulty • which ' many sheepowncrs , experienced last season in propurine tho men ..with "the hand shears. Owners who wero amongst the unfortunates now say, " Never.ngain'l ' In Canterbury co : opcrativ6; sheep-shrnrinV :voguo for the past six years, and with much jsheds fitted with machine! have been in success.,, Numbers of farmers co-operato and build and fit the sheds with all the necessaries. ; The result is eminently satisfactory,, because tho scheme enables tho farmer .with a moderate-sized flock, say, a thousand sheep,.' to ■ got his sheep shorn as cheaply as if lie owned a hundred thousand. .On.a big station', of perhaps seventy to ninety, thousand'shebp the,total cost, of, shearing until tlio.baling up. of .tho wool iV usually about 3os. per hundred, Tho- man, with the small. flock secures this 'advantage, by tho co-operativo shed., In the Wairarap.a, Mr. J. Strang,has a privato shed fitted with machines which shear tho sheep of .his neighbours for miles around, to the number of perhaps thirty thousand. Tlio gain, in addition to tho cconomy, is that tho smallor. sheep-farmers who take advantage} of the scheme aro freed from all tho bother-and worry. They simply drive them flocks to tho shed in 'tlio .morning, and drivo them away home shorn in tho evening. . .