Many judicious farmers object to washing sheep, on account of its
tendency to produce colds and catarrhal affections, to which this animal
is particularly subject; but it cannot well be dispensed with, as the
wool is always rendered more salable; and if the operation is carefully
done, it need not be attended with injury.
Mr. Randall, the extensive sheep-breeder of Texas, states that he does
not wash his sheep at all, for what he deems good reasons. About the
middle of April, or at the time when one-half of the ewes have young
lambs at their sides, and the balance about to drop, would be the only
time in that region when he could wash them. At this period he would not
race or worry his ewes at all, on any account; as they should be
troubled as little as possible, and no advantage to the fleece from
washing could compensate for the injury to the animal. In his high
mountain-region, lambing-time could not prudently come before the latter
part of March or April--the very period when washing and shearing must
be commenced--since in February, and even up to the fifteenth or
twentieth of March, there is much bad weather, and a single cold, rainy
or sleety norther would carry off one-half of the lambs dropped during
its continuance.
In most of that portion of the United States lying north of forty
degrees, the washing is performed from the middle of May till the first
of June, according to the season and climate. When the streams are hard,
which is frequently the case in limestone regions, it is better to
attend to it immediately after an abundant rain, which proportionately
lessens the lime derived from the springs. The climate of the Southern
States would admit of an earlier time. The rule should be to wait until
the water has acquired sufficient warmth for bathing, and until cold
rains and storms and cold nights are no longer to be expected.
The practice of a large majority of farmers is to drive their sheep to
the watering-ground early in the morning, on a warm day, leaving the
lambs behind. The sheep are confined on the bank of the stream by a
temporary enclosure, from which they are taken, and, if not too heavy,
carried into water sufficiently deep to prevent their touching bottom.
They are then washed, by gently squeezing the fleece with the hands,
after which they are led ashore, and as much of the water pressed out as
possible before letting them go, as the great weight retained in the
wool frequently staggers and throws them down.
By the best flock-masters, sheep are usually washed in vats. A small
stream is dammed up, and the water taken from it in an aqueduct, formed
by nailing boards together, and carried till a sufficient fall is
obtained to have it pour down a couple of feet or more into the vat. The
body of water, to do the work fast and well, should be some twenty-four
inches wide, and five or six deep; and the swifter the current the
better. The vat should be some three and a half feet deep, and large
enough for four sheep to swim in it. A yard is built near the vat, from
the gate of which a platform extends to and incloses the vat on three
sides. This keeps the washer from standing in the water, and makes it
much easier to lift the sheep in and out. The yard is built opposite the
corners of two fields--to take advantage of the angle of one of them to
drive the sheep more readily into the yard, which should be large enough
to contain the entire flock, if it does not exceed two hundred; and the
bottom of it, as well as the smaller yard, unless well sodded over,
should be covered with coarse gravel, to avoid becoming muddy. If the
same establishment is used by a number of flock-masters, gravelling will
always be necessary.
[Illustration: WASHING APPARATUS.]
As soon as the flocks are confined in the middle yard, the lambs are all
immediately caught out from among them, and set over the fence into the
yard to the left, to prevent their being trampled down, as often
happens, by the old sheep, or straying off, if let loose. As many sheep
are then driven out of the middle yard into the smaller yard to the
right, as it will conveniently hold. A boy stands by the gate next to
the vat, to open and shut it, or the gate is drawn together with a chain
and weight, and two men, catching the sheep as directed under the head
of "tagging," commence placing them in the water for the preparatory
process of "wetting." As soon as the water strikes through the wool,
which occupies but an instant, the sheep is lifted out and let loose.
Where there are conveniences for so doing, this process may be more
readily performed by driving them through a stream deep enough to compel
the sheep to swim; but _swimming_ the compact-fleeced, fine-woolled
sheep for any length of time--as is practised with the long-wools in
England--will not properly cleanse the wool for steaming. The vat
should, of course, be in an inclosed field, to prevent their escape. The
whole flock should thus be passed over, and again driven round through
the field into the middle yard, where they should stand for about an
hour before washing commences.
There is a large per centage of potash in the wool oil, which acts upon
the dirt independent of the favorable effect which would result from
thus soaking it with water alone for some time. If washed soon after a
good shower, previous wetting might be dispensed with; and it is not,
perhaps, absolutely necessary in any case. If the water is warm enough
to allow the sheep to remain in it for the requisite period, they may be
got clean by washing without any previous wetting; though the snowy
whiteness of fleece, which has such an influence on the purchaser, is
not so often nor so perfectly attained in the latter way. But little
time is saved by dispensing with "wetting," as it takes proportionably
longer to wash, and it is not so well for the sheep to be kept so long
in the water at once.
When the washing commences, two and sometimes four sheep are plunged in
the vat. When four are put in, two soak while two are washed. This
should not, however, be done, unless the water is very warm, and the
washers are uncommonly quick and expert; and it is, upon the whole,
rather an objectionable practice, since few animals suffer so much from
the effects of a chill as the sheep; and, if they have been previously
wetted, it is wholly unnecessary. When the sheep are in the water, the
two washers commence kneading the wool with their hands about the
dirtier parts--the breech, belly, etc.--and they continue to turn the
sheep so that the descending current of water can strike into all parts
of the fleece.
As soon as the sheep are clean, which may be known by the water running
entirely clear, each washer seizes his own animal by the foreparts,
plunges it deep in the vats, and, taking advantage of the rebound, lifts
it out, setting it gently down on its breech upon the platform. He
then--if the sheep is old and weak, and it is well in all cases--presses
out some of the water from the wool, and after submitting the sheep to a
process presently to be mentioned, lets it go.
There should be no mud about the vat, the earth not covered with sod,
being gravelled. Sheep should be kept on clean pastures, from washing to
shearing--not where they can come in contact with the ground, burnt
logs, and the like--and they should not be driven over dusty roads. The
washers should be strong and capable men, and, protected as they are
from any thing but the water running over the sides of the vat, they can
labor several hours without inconvenience. Two hundred sheep will employ
two experienced men not over half a day, and this rate is at times much
exceeded.
It is a great object, not only as a matter of propriety and honesty, but
even as an item of profit, to get the wool clean, and of a snowy
whiteness, in which condition it will always sell for more than enough
extra to offset the increased labor and the diminution in weight. The
average loss in American Saxon wool in scouring, after being washed on
the back, is estimated at thirty-six per cent.; and in American Merino
forty-two and a half per cent.