Shearing shed

“ The shearing had been delayed owing to the bad weather, but was to commence the following Friday in the large shed holding thirty-two shearers. These shearers travel about the country, going from one station to another during the shearing season. They are given their "tucker" and bunks in a shed fitted up for that purpose, and are paid at the rate of 1l. per every 100 sheep shorn; and a very good man can shear 100 a day. ”

“ Small tramways, with baskets for the fleeces, run the wool up to the wool tables, superseding the more general plan of hand picking. At each side of the shed floor are certain small areas, four or five feet square, such space being found by experience to be sufficient for the postures and gymnastics practised during the shearing of a sheep. Opposite to each square is an aperture, communicating with a long narrow paled yard, outside of the shed. Through this each man pops his sheep when shorn, where he remains in company with the others shorn by the same hand, until counted out. ”

“ Besides the yards above described, you will want one or two smaller ones for getting the sheep into the wool-shed at shearing-time, and you will also want a small yard for branding. The wool-shed is a roomy covered building, with a large central space, and an aisle-like partition on each side. These last will be for holding the sheep during the night. The shearers will want to begin with daylight, and the dew will not yet be off the wool if the sheep are exposed. If wool is packed damp it will heat and spoil ”

“ There are also fenced paddocks, mostly near the homestead, woolsheds, or sheep yards. The term woolshed may not be understood by everyone; it is an immense shed in which the shearing takes place, the wool is baled up and stowed, and the sheep are left over-night for the shearers to start on early in the morning. ”

“ The shearing is carried on in a large shed, divided into pens or small compartments, each connected separately with the attached yards. It is usually done by contract, the price being £1 to £1 5s. per hundred sheep. Each man has his pen, which is cleared out and refilled as often as necessary, and at each clearance the number therein are counted to his name. The shorn sheep are passed direct to the branding yard, and from thence to a common yard, from which all are counted out at nightfall for return to the run. ”

“ Clark as soon as possible at the shed where the shearing was to be done. Nevertheless, in spite of his haste, Sandy tried as he went along to answer Donald's question. [170]
"There was a time long ago when all shearing was done by hand. In the spring bands of traveling shearers came from ranch to ranch and sheared the flocks for so much a day. Sometimes these men were Mexicans, sometimes Indians. As they made a business of shearing and nothing else they became verra skilful with the shears and could turn off many fleeces a day. It is an art to shear a sheep. ”

“ The talk and laughter had died down outside, but from time to time my ear caught a measured foot-tread as though a guard were walking up and down before the shed....
The plank came up easily enough. My heart sank within me. It revealed merely a shallow trough about three feet deep going down to the foundations of the shed which, as I had guessed, were set in concrete.
I got down into the hole and crawled in under the floor. It was pitch-dark and abominably hot down there under the boards, with a strong smell of rats. ”

“ Sheep cannot long endure close confinement without injury. In all ordinary weather, a shed, closely boarded on three sides, with a light [154] roof, is sufficient protection; especially if the open side is shielded from bleak winds, or leads into a well-inclosed yard. If the floors above are used for storage, they should be made tight, that no hay, chaff, or dust can fall upon the fleece. The sheds attached to the barn are not usually framed or silled, but are supported by some posts of durable timber set in the ground. The roofs are formed of boards battened with slats. ”

“ It may be rendered rain-proof by pea-vines, straw, or pine boughs. In a region where timber is very cheap, planks or boards, of a sufficient thickness not to spring downward, and thus open the roof, battened with slats, may take the place of the poles and boughs; and they would make a tighter and more durable roof. If the lower ends of the boards or poles are raised a couple of feet from the ground, by placing a log under them, the shed will shelter more sheep. ”

“ Shearers earn great wages; a good man will do from 100 to 200 per day, though the latter number is of course exceptional. The introduction of shearing machines has helped to increase the shearer's daily tally. A host of other men are employed in the shed. Boys gather the fleeces which they throw on a table where they are skirted, the trimmings being divided into "locks and pieces" and "bellies," and the rolled fleece is thrown on another long table at which the wool-classer presides. ”

“ A clay or earth floor will answer every purpose, and the shed may be of the cheapest character, provided it will turn the rain. The floor of the manure shed should slope inward from all directions, and the drainage around the shed should be outward, so that no rain-water or snow-water can enter. ”

“ Its beauties come out by degrees, as the understanding opens to comprehend the affairs of the establishment. In the sheds, are ranges of musty-looking furnaces; some cold and gaping, others showing, through crevices, red signs of fire within. There are piles of blocks of coal, of burnt ladles and peels, and rivulets of black refuse, which has flowed out from the furnaces into safe beds of red sand. In a special shed, is a black moist-looking heap of what appears to be filth, battened into the shape of a large compost bed. ”

“ For their own use when travelling they make simple shelters as night approaches, because they dislike to get wet. The material is always close at hand. Slender straight poles are quickly cut and brought in to make frame-work for a shed, the floor of which is about half a metre above ground. The roof is made of big leaves, and in less than an hour they are comfortably at home in one or more sheds, grouped around fires on the flimsy floor. ”

“ A dry shed, not exposed to the north or east, if wired on the open side, is always filled with pure air. Shelves or open lockers, in which the birds will build their nests and rear their young, should be attached to the walls. A long, straight inclosure, covered at the top and sides with wire work, should communicate with the shed. ”

“ Speaking generally, the usual rule for the time of shedding may be said to be to let the shed be closed when the cranks of the loom are at the top centre, or perhaps one-sixteenth of a revolution farther forward, and let the shed be full open when the cranks are about the bottom centre. ”

“ As you go from the house to the shed it is on your left; on the right there is a yard with a woodshed and a stable, separated from the neighboring house by a trellis-fence. Every morning the house opens twelve green shutters onto one of the busiest streets of the town, the shed opens a large gray door on a back street; the roses on the bushes that have been trained to grow like trees in the little garden can look out into the lane which connects its two larger sisters. ”

“ The word shed, which we connect with a low, narrow out-house, gives no correct idea, however, of this kind of structure, universal throughout the Indian settlements, and common also among the whites. The space enclosed is generally large, the sloping roof of palm-thatch is lifted very high on poles made of the trunks of trees, thus allowing a free circulation of air, and there are usually no walls at all. ”

“ When the great shed is in full activity it is a splendid sight with the row of stooping figures, each embracing his sheep, the buzz of the shears, the rush of the messengers who carry the clip to the table, the swift movements of the sorters who separate the perfect from the imperfect wool, and the levering and straining of the packers who compress it all into square bundles as hard as iron with 240 pounds in each. ”

“ As often as not, the greater part of the ground-floor is used as a cattle-shed, and off this a short passage leads into the family common-room. The upstairs rooms—reached by clambering up a block of wood, with carved notches to serve as steps—are generally only granaries and barns, full of beasts that crawl and bite. ”

“ Having explored the slate beds, you may proceed to the slate sheds, where the men are engaged in riving and dressing the slate, and, from the expertness of the workmen, a very interesting process it is. The clogs, you perceive, are thrown down in heaps at the open side of the shed, and are of various shapes and sizes, the average size being that of a well-grown folio volume. ”

“ Before we proceed any further it may be best to give the plan of a workshop, a camp, an outhouse, or a shed to be made of sawed lumber, the framework of which is made of what is known as two-by-fours, that is, pieces of lumber two inches thick by four inches wide. ”

“ An absolutely tight floor is not so great a necessity as it is in the stable, because the amount of moisture is under control, but many farmers prefer to make concrete floors for the manure-shed and thus to guard against any loss from leaching. ”

“ To further the entrance of sunlight the windows should be higher than they are wide, which will materially assist in diffusing the rays over the greatest amount of inside space. In addition to these a shed should be large enough to supply storage space for sufficient fodder to feed the sheep while they must be sheltered. Estimating that a ton of hay requires five hundred cubic feet, and that a sheep will not eat over three pounds of hay per day, it would require about one hundred and twenty-five cubic feet of space to contain the hay needed to maintain a sheep during six months. ”

“ I had gone out for a walk, but as the snow began to fall I took shelter under the shed which the workmen have built at the near end of the great new house. The men have gone, you know, and the owner is supposed to be coming to-morrow, but the shed is still standing. ”

“ A better plan is to inclose three sides, making them so tight that all drafts will be prevented, and to use the shed as a place of exercise for cows or other livestock. We have learned within recent years that such an inclosure is more healthful and comfortable for cattle than stalls in an inclosed building, no matter how cold the weather may be. The fresh air without any drafts, and the liberty of movement, are needed. ”

“ At the back, a low shed, extending the whole length of the house, one corner projecting further than the rest, and covering a cool spring that gushes up, quick and bright, with a sweet impetuosity, and goes dancing merrily across the green meadow, bright and glorious in the sunlight, but sullen in the shade. ”

“ In a single lift the time allowed for opening and closing the shed must be used to the best advantage; that is, as much time as possible must be given for this purpose. On this account it is necessary to pick the moment the slay is sufficiently far back to allow the shuttle to enter the shed—that is, when the slay is half-way back, or the crank at the bottom centre. The griffe is worked by a crank on the top shaft of the loom, and there is no actual dwell of the griffe or of the ends when the shed is open ”

“ The sheds were huge affairs of timber built over the track to keep off the snow in winter, and I felt like stopping and counting how many pieces of timber were in each shed. It must have taken a forest to build these sheds. ”

“ Goods-sheds may be built of stone, brick, iron, or timber, or a combination of all of them. Where the requirements are well proved, and the traffic certain, it is better to build a substantial permanent structure. Iron sheds, with sides and roofs of galvanized corrugated iron sheets, will last for many years if not made of too light materials. There are many cases where it is more prudent to put up a goods-shed in timber than to incur the cost of one of more permanent character. ”

“ We hurry in single files from opposite ends of rouseabouts' and shearers' huts (as the paths happen to run to the shed) gulping hot tea or coffee from a pint-pot in one hand and biting at a junk of brownie in the other.
“Shed of forty hands. Shearers rush the pens and yank out sheep and throw them like demons; grip them with their knees, take up machines, jerk the strings; and with a rattling whirring roar the great machine-shed starts for the day.
“'Go it, you——tigers!' yells a tar-boy. 'Wool away!' 'Tar!' 'Sheep Ho!' We rush through with a whirring roar till breakfast time. ”

“ There are about fifty acres of those low-lying meadows which want to be thoroughly bush drained—bushes are quite as good as pipes for that stiff land, if they put in the right sort of stuff, and it don’t cost half so much—but still it can’t be done for nothing, and then there is a new wagon shed wanted, and some odds and ends ”

“ The forest had been cleared for the space of a few acres around the dwelling, and these were occupied by a small garden or vegetable patch, meagrely stocked with scattered and half parched plants; and by a cornfield, along the skirts of which some lean hogs were seen groping with a felonious stealthiness. A shed, in the same inclosure, formed a rendezvous for a few half-starved cattle, that probably obtained their principal but slender support from the neighboring wood. ”