The Journals of Martha E. McMillan

depending on the year. Shearing sheep took skill. An average shearer could shear about twenty- five sheep a day. An exceptional shearer could clip thirty-five sheep (“Raising Sheep,” par. 2). The sheep shearing process started with washing then shearing the sheep. Afterwards the wool would be washed. In 1871 the sheep shearing started May 19 th and ended June 10 th with one thousand sheep sheared. In 1888 on June 1 st sheep shearers came and in the first week of June sheared six hundred sheep (McMillan, Rankin 5, 11). Understanding why sheep shearing happens and how long it takes gives a reader of Martha’s journals an appreciation of the work accomplished to shear six hundred or one thousand sheep. The knowledge of it taking an average shearer a day to de-fleece twenty five sheep gives readers an appreciation of the hardworking sheep shearers who would shear the sheep for days on end to complete the work. It took nearly three weeks to shear the sheep in 1871, not counting Sundays or as Martha calls them Sabbaths. Averaging everything out, fifty sheep were sheared in a day. Taking the number of sheep an average shearer could shear in a day from the article “Raising Sheep,” the sheep shearing in 1871 meant it could have taken two men shearing sheep for twenty days to finish the flock of one thousand sheep. Washing the wool happens after the sheep have been sheared. Wool contains a substance called lanolin, the sheep’s natural fatty substance of oil and sweat. The wool also can have dust, dirt, bits of vegetation, and erm, things clinging on the back area (van Deijnen, par. 6). A sheep’s fleece becomes very dirty during the year interval between sheep shearings. Washing the wool removes the dirt and oil from the fleece. Two methods of wool washing exist depending on the use for the wool later. Washing the fleece in cold water leaves the lanolin in making the woolen products from the fleece waterproof (Reser, par. 21). Most fleeces are washed in soapy, warm water. Though the fleece cannot be agitated for fear of felting and has to have a warm water rinse 76