SOME SHEARING RECORDS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9135, 7 February 1910, Page 3

SOME SHEARING RECORDS.

Jack Howe's 321 has stood for 17 years as' the highest tally shorn by a shearer in one working day in Australia, and probably in the world. , It seems likely to stand for another 17, for as each year closes without this record being approached, so each year's close lessens the possibility of this being done. The sheep bred nowadays carry half as much wool, again as those which grazed in '92, and the man who tops the two hundred is now a ringer indeed. Howe's record tally has been the„subject of a great deal of discussion among shearers ever since it was made, and all combinations of figures above 300 the subject of wages. It is strange that the record should have been made as the result of an offer in 1892 of a gold medal by the then proprietor of Coleman's eucalyptc for the highest tally shown in that year; strange, because it hardly seems possible, if you go into .a shed after the shearers have "got their hands in," that an offer of a

bushel of gold .■ medals could make them go any harder. But there the fact remains. Howe got the medal, and in winning it he put up a record that no shearer has since approached with handshears, and there is but one other tally on record in the history of Australian shearing which exceeds the treble century, and that was made with machines. The fact that over 300 sheep have been shorn by oiie mail in one day is made much use of occasionally to show how much a shearer can earn; but the good folk who point with pride to this record of Australian strenuousness forget that at the same shed and the same shearing this selfsame Jack Howe took all day to put through 49 wethers.

Howe had his good days and his bad days; withall he was one of the best shearers Avho ever took off a floece. The great record was made at Alice Downs, Queensland, on the day before the cut-out, in October, 1892, aiid was made in lambs, not.grown sheep. On the previous day-Howe.,had shorn 144, but to show his capacity, on the day of the cut-out, he shore 190 lambs and 38 wethers. On those memorable eleven days- at the close of: the shearing at Alice Downs that year, when lambs came in, Howe's tallies ran thus:—l 49, 264, 13i, 249, 257, 258, 262, 267, 144,. 321, 190, and 38 wethers. Howe was a great lamb shearer, but his best record in grown sheep at that shearing was 191 ewes. In all lie' shore 81.02 sheep in 59 shearing days. The sheep were shorn by hand (blades). It. was in the same year (i 892) that tlie record fpr machine shearing was put up, which has to be bracketed with Howe's hand record. This was a ta'lly of 315, put up by Jim Power at Barenya, Landsborough River (Q.). Power was the champion machine shearer of his day, and in one season shore 40,000 sheep.

in October last year soma great cutting /took place at Murnpeowie,, South Australia, when 30 shearers averaged 173 sheep per day for four days, The ringer was W.: Day, and after he had put the proud totals of 237, 227, 264, and 236 opposite his name he claimed the title of champion shearer of Australia—or someone claimed it for him. But in August, two months previously,, and again at Alice Downs '(Q.),- " where all the big guns go," Ted Dean shore 283 on the last day, the three preceding days' tallies being 217, 261. and 260, and on a day earlier in the shearing he cut 274. The average for the whole board for the last four days was 184J per man per day. On the day of the cut-out 15 shearers cut" over 200 each in the day, and the pickers-up must have been glad when it was all over. Marsh's tally, 256, as the next best, deserves to be noticed. The shearers of the early days put up some noteworthy records. Long Maloney was perhaps- the most renowned of backcountry men, and his record of 22,000 for a season was a matter of wonder for many years until, J. Power came along. As far back as 187, _ Long Maloney shore . 11 wethers in 11 minutes, but the wool was thin m those days. Sid Boss performed a similar feat at Belalie, oil the "Warrego, in. 1884, getting through nine lambs in nine minutes. In 1886, at Evesham, Jimmy Fisher, a _ noted "big gun," shore 50 lambs in one hour before breakfast. in actual tail tally. cutting, the introduction of the machine (the first sheep-searing machine in Australia was installed at' Dunlop, New South Wales, in 1888) has not made much difference to the "big guns," though it has helped the moderate man very considerably. Fast shearing is not a matter of handling the shears, but on handling the.sheep, and the man who learns to" make the longest "blows" without lifting the shears is the ".:,n who "will make the biggest tallies. That is a matter which each man must learn from experience—and , his pen-mate. A man may Jearn' one stroke in a «day from another shearer (who mav or may not be a ringer) which will add ten sheep a day to his tally. It's all in the knack of getting round the corners, and if you become a shearer, you will suddenly find to your astonishment that a sheep is fll corners.—Sydney Morning Herald.