WOLSELEY SHEARING MACHINE.

Otago Witness, Issue 1892, 15 May 1890, Page 9

WOLSELEY SHEARING MACHINE.

The following letter on the Wolseley shearing machine appears in a late number of the Field :—

Sir, — It may interest some of your readers to know how sheep are shorn by machines.. Before writing about them, it will be as well to say something of band shearing. Shearing on a sheep station is the one busy time of the year ; and if there are from 30,000 to 50,000 sheep to get through, there will bo, 16 or 20 shearers. Amongst these there ara sure to be some men who are what is termed rough— that is, they do not take the wool off olean, mako lots of second cuts, and out the sheep badly.. Even good shearers make second outs in tbt woel when going over the back, in the flank and about the neok ; and when wool is cut uj in small pieces it must deteriorate the priot No one who has not seen it would believe the way some Bheep are cut and gashed with tho shears. Every shearer cuts more or leas — most < of them more ; and your readers could judg^ of how sheep are shorn by the number sor^e men get over in the day. Merino ewes are. fine in the wool and very tender in the akir, . yet moat ordinary Bhearera do from 150 to r^yea 200 a day. It is impossible to do such number well. For the last five or six yeavs manatrera have been more exacting; but the rule of a atation always is, "Get the shearing through," 1 so that the Bheep may get quickly back to the hills. Shearing is the best paid and worst done work m the colony. Just aow ife ie 15s per 100 sheep. The shearing maohinea are worked on the principle ■of a boree dipper j there ia a comb with slightly elevated teeth, made of ateel, the knife works on the top of the comb; a three horse-power engine will work 16 machines in the following manner :— Thore is a shaft running the whole length of the shearing floor, about 7ft from the ground. At each shearer a Btand there is a wheel (which turnr, the machinery) that is connected with tVo knife. This part is above the Bhearer's h^art and a leather pipe, about an inch in dianveW incloaesa piece of sheep gut, which giy ria the knife 1600 revolutions a minute. Thtee ia a universal joint in the handle of the machine and anyono can Boon learn to use it. There ia a handle at the wheel of each of j ae driving machines, by which the shearh^ machine is put in or out of gear. A sparer catches n, sheep and brings it to his stsiad; he then pulls the handle and bis machine is ready .With two or three cuts he haa the brisket clean, ho then runs the machine across the belly, cleans the hind legs and round the tail; then up the neck and rouad head, finishes the neok, down shoulder and side, and over baokbone, then down the other side, and stops the machine, Xt le , ta * he she eP co. The machine runs through the wool quite easily. It is iuW guided to any part, and goes round the sara. tbe same as down the Bide ; you can Q&eaf either very close, or can leave wool on by altering the comb. They are made in several thicknesßea; in cold parts it is a great advantage to. leave a little wool on the sheep. A careful man with tbe machine will never cut a sheep The oaly way they are cut is feom a broken comb, or, when shearing, letting the skin gotrn a wrinkle, whioh aomotiiaeß gets through the teeth of the comb, but the cut is only the top skin. Then the wool is sptetididlf take.' off ; there is not a break in the fleece all ov?/ r ' Even thin-woolied, old a^os-whlch the W hand-shearer could no\ Bnear wit houfi breaking the fleeoe across ' cOe back-are done- jmt Ih,^ same as b^ vy woolled oheoi) . Whua thl) neeces re tnrown ou fc on the table to bo ".lifted, they do not take nearly so much room 'as hand-shorn ones, A hand-shearer has always to be pulling the flaace out of his way, but with tho machines it just falls over aa it'ii cut. I think that, for anyone connected wilb sheep, the machines are the most wonderful things ever invented. This is the first year they have been in New Zealand, but I beliovo in a short time they will be universal. I guw them at work at Messrs James Smith aud Sons', of Greenfield, and they moat kindly showed me everything about them, They havo 14 machinos, and when I was there had been using them about 10 days, and tho ahearero wero doing on an average over 100 pt;; man. One man did 160, and when you consider tho aupnior way the sheep are shorn, acio, you get every ounce of wool taken off as is grows on the sheep, I should think that the 3xpense of getting the machines titled up would rep&y itself in two yeara by fhe extya price of the wool and the far less knocking about the sheep pc; . The only part of the ranchmen that, seema to get out of order is the gut connection. If the pipe gels bont or twisted by carets* men, tho friction is so great that the gut is burnt through ; but this never happens if it ia kepi straight, and I have heard that they are to have a connection made of ateel tibbou twiated and jointed , but evon at present they are nearly perfection. OTAGCX Laa Flat Station, Outrana, Otago,