With the coming of spring our sheep are driven to large central plants, where they are shorn by the use of machines driven by electricity or steam power. One man shears about one hundred and fifty sheep per day. For this he receives eight cents per head. When the wool is taken off the sheep it is gathered up and carefully tied with string made of paper. The tied fleece is then dropped into an elevator, and is carried up about ten feet, where it is dropped into a large sack about three feet in diameter and seven feet long. In this sack there is always a wool tramper, who keeps tramping the fleeces down, so that about forty fleeces are finally put into each sack, making the weight of the sack approximately three hundred pounds. As these sacks are filled they are carefully stored in a dry shed, and, when shearing is completed, are hauled to the railroad station and shipped to the great wool centers of Boston or Philadelphia. While the bulk of the wool in the United States is produced west of the Missouri River, that territory manufactures very little wool. So the western sheepman, who is thus forced to grow his wool in the western states, pays about two cents a pound freight on it back to the eastern market, where it is sold and later manufactured into cloth. A part of this same clothing is then shipped west, to be sold to the very man, in some instances, who produced the wool out of which it is made.🏁

Submitted by lego - 10/29/2025

With the coming of spring our sheep are driven to large central plants, where they are shorn by the use of machines driven by electricity or steam power. One man shears about one hundred and fifty sheep per day. For this he receives eight cents per head. When the wool is taken off the sheep it is gathered up and carefully tied with string made of paper. The tied fleece is then dropped into an elevator, and is carried up about ten feet, where it is dropped into a large sack about three feet in diameter and seven feet long. In this sack there is always a wool tramper, who keeps tramping the fleeces down, so that about forty fleeces are finally put into each sack, making the weight of the sack approximately three hundred pounds. As these sacks are filled they are carefully stored in a dry shed, and, when shearing is completed, are hauled to the railroad station and shipped to the great wool centers of Boston or Philadelphia. While the bulk of the wool in the United States is produced west of the Missouri River, that territory manufactures very little wool. So the western sheepman, who is thus forced to grow his wool in the western states, pays about two cents a pound freight on it back to the eastern market, where it is sold and later manufactured into cloth. A part of this same clothing is then shipped west, to be sold to the very man, in some instances, who produced the wool out of which it is made.🏁

Submitted by lego - 10/29/2025