SHEEP-SHEARING

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 33, 9 February 1915, Page 2

SHEEP-SHEARING

CONDITIONS IN AMERICA. HOW THEY COMPARE WITH NEW J ZEALAND. Many of the members of the New Zealand Shearers' Association also belong to the Australian shearers' organisation, while five of them are members of one of the unions in America, and follow up their calling during the shearing season, in that country. One of these latter, who is returning to the States by the Maitai, has supplied Mr. M. Laracy, the secretary of the association, with some interesting information regarding the conditions of the industry in America. He states that there are twenty Australian members of the Shearers' Union in America, in addition to the five New Zealand members. There are approximately 40,000,000 sheep in the States, and the number of members of the Western Shearers' Union is about 1200. The great bulk of the shearing, however, is done by shearers outside of the union in the eastern States. Shearing commences in Arizona in February and closes in Montana in July. Montana comes first in importance on the shearing list and California next. As the shearers have to travel extensively — sometimes thousands of miles to socAire. a run — their expanses are naturally heavy. A different system prevails to that in existence in New Zealand. The men work in "gangs," and a "gang" sometimes shears as many as 80.000 sheep. The men supply their own accommodation in the way of tents and bunks, and as the weather is often cold they are frequently compelled to instal heating apparatus. There are no shed hands. The shearers simply kick the fleece out of the way and the contractor stamps it down into bags. There is no pressing, as in New Zealand. The men work ten hours a day and seven days a week. The rates of pay range from 4d to 5d per sheep (about £2 a hundred as against £1 a hundred in New Zealand). The sheep aro coarse long wool, and only broad gauge machines are in use. On the whole the tallies put up are in advance of those in this Dominion, but the hours are longer than here. In California half the shearers are Mexicans or Spaniards. Agreements are made between shearers and contractors, and shearers themselves are unheard of in any arrangements that may be arrived at. In Montana, sheep farming is very expensive, as food has to be raised in the summer to carry on through the winter months. Sheep-raising is gradually being pushed out by "dry" farming as distinct from that carried on on irrigated land.