The Farm

In the iirst place we may say that a sheep whicti is to be sheared should be well fed, for if it is hungry, it will be impatient, and it is more difficult to run the shears around the collapsed belly and sides of an empty sheep than it is about the rounded form of a full one. The animal should be eaught, lif ted clear of the Hoor, and carried out of the pen. The catcher should hold it with itsback towards himself, and the shearer should, vvhile it is in this position, clean its feet of any filth and its belly f rom straw or other foreign shdtance which may have become attached to it. The wooï should be clipped off evenly and smoothly. It should not be cuttwice, and care, of course, must be exercised not to cut the skin. Sonietimes it is difficult in shearing the Merini nol to uut the skin, but any one ivho uoes it oftejn is an incompetent shearer, and it is not irotitlU to koop him at work. It would be hardly possible for a novice to shear a Merino, if he could any other sheep. The sheep should be held in the easiest manner possible, and should be conflned the least possible time ; that is to say a man who professes to be a good shearer should be able to do it quickly and with little irritation to the animal. Clip the wool as close to the skin as it is possible and not show the skin naked or red. Unless this rule is observed the animal may suffer from sunburn or from a cold snap of weather, The place of shearing should be kept perfectly clean. All dung and scattered locks should be removed at once. It seems scarcely necessary to say that the proceedings should be conducted with the utmost gentleness, bul men areso apt to get boisterous ant ill-tempered when handling animáis that it will do no harm to cali attention to the matter. All animáis, it is safe to say, are injured by rudeness in handling. The sheep is a timid animal, and if not treated kindly, it wil become very impatient. This is aboul all we can say in reply to the request of our correspondent.