The Sheep Dip

Southland Times, Issue 14333, 29 April 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Sheep Dip

Row sheep dipping may be made easy has been demonstrated at Otekaike, where a simple contrivance facilitating operations has been at work. This, says the Oamaru Mail, is the inventionof Mr Cobden, blacksmith on the station. It consists of a revolving platform, 90 feet in circumference, placed at the end of the run from the sheep pens. The sheep land upon the platform, which is enclosed by a fence, and are carried round to the dip, where their further progress is arrested, and they are tumbled into the water. The platform is being driven by an oil engine, but oue horse power is sufficient for the purpose. It is'claimed that the invention enables the work of dipping to be performed more expeditiously than the old method, and that it effects a saving of labour and is much easier on the sheep. The machine at Q'tekaike cannot be said to be a perfect embodiment of the' idea of the inventor, for in its construction a good deal of old material has been utilised. But it is, nevertheless, capable of putting through 15,000 sheep per day, a;id bn a recent morning, the tally for two hours was 2600. The ordinary sheep dip is a centre of sultry language, (general profanity and perspi-

ration, a pandemonium of collies; of torn garments and bruised cuticle, both of man and beast, and any thing that will smooth the arduous business will oe welcomed by all who have to, take part in it. From some hours’ watching recently of the operation of dipping a large number of sheep—mostly Cheviots and as strong as yearling cattle, we camo to the conclusion that something" like this Otekaike invention would bo a boon. A battened endless floor travelling in the race and drawn by horse power or a water-wheel (there is always a creek handy) seems preferable to this table of 30 feet in diameter and ‘such a getting upstairs’ could be easily applied to existing dips. This kind of moving floor is used for conveying goods in warehouses, and in the form of a stair 1 is now being used instead of elevators for customers in shops in England—the stair is always on the move, and the user simply steps on and is carried up. It is the old horse (foot) power with the motion reversed!