Editing Sheep shearing (section)

==History==



===Pre-Industrial Europe===
[[File:Flock Of Sheep In Omalos Plateau.jpg|thumb|Sheep in modern Crete]]

Europe's oldest city, [[Knossos]], derived its wealth from the sheep wool industry. The largest group of [[Linear B]] tablets is the great archive principally of shearing records though also of sheep breeding.<ref>J. T. Killen, "The Wool Industry of Crete in the Late Bronze Age". The Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. 59 (1964), pp. 1–15 Published by: British School at Athens. {{doi|10.1017/S0068245400006031}}{{JSTOR|30103132}}</ref>

The [[medieval English wool trade]] was one of the most important factors in the English economy. The main sheep-shearing was an annual midsummer (June) event in medieval England culminating in the sheep-shearing feast.{{Citation needed|date=January 2012}} It had always been conventional practice to wash sheep.<ref>Preparing Wool for Market. p. 34, col 3,''The Scientific American'', Vol 1, No 3. published 16 July 1859. [[:File:Scientific American - Series 2 - Volume 001 - Issue 03.pdf]]</ref>

===Australia===
In Australia, until the 1870s, [[Squatting (pastoral)|squatters]] washed their sheep in nearby creeks prior to shearing.<ref name="Cleanwool">
{{cite encyclopedia
|title = Chisholm, Alec H.
|encyclopedia = The Australian Encyclopaedia
|volume = 8
|pages = 86
|publisher=Halstead Press
|location = Sydney
|year = 1963
|id = Shearing}}</ref> Later some expensive hot water installations were constructed on some of the larger [[Station (Australian agriculture)|stations]] for the washing.<ref name="Gilbert">Gilbert, Lionel, New England Readings, Armidale College of Advanced Education, Armidale, 1977</ref> Australian growers were influenced by the Spanish practice of washing their very fine wool after shearing.{{Citation needed|date=March 2015}} There were three main reasons for the custom in Australia:{{Citation needed|date=March 2015}}

# The English manufacturers demanded that Australian woolgrowers provide their fleeces free from excessive vegetable matter, [[Burr (fruit)|burrs]], soil, etc. so they could be processed in the same way as any other raw wool
# The dirty fleeces were hard to shear and demanded that the metal blade shears be sharpened more often.
# Wool in Australia was carted by [[Ox-wagon|bullock team]] or horse teams and charged by weight. Washed wool was lighter and did not cost as much to transport.

The practice of washing the wool rather than the sheep evolved from the fact that hotter water could be used to wash the wool, than that used to wash the sheep. When the practice of selling wool in the grease occurred in the 1890s, wool washing became obsolete.{{Citation needed|date=March 2015}}

Australia and New Zealand had to discard the old methods of wool harvesting and evolve more efficient systems to cope with the huge numbers of sheep involved. Shearing was revolutionized by the invention of an Australian sheepgrower, [[Frederick York Wolseley]]. His machines made in Birmingham, England, by his business [[The Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company]] were introduced after 1888, reducing second cuts and shearing time.<ref name="Gilbert"/> By 1915 most large [[sheep station]] sheds in Australia had installed machines, driven by steam or later by internal combustion engines.

Shearing tables were invented in the 1950s and have not proved popular, although some are still used for [[crutching]].

In the US, the worldwide shortage of shearers is becoming a consideration for those wanting to expand wool production.<ref name="citsi">{{cite book |title=Changes in the Sheep Industry in the United States: Making the Transition from Tradition |author=Committee on the Economic Development and Current Status of the Sheep Industry in the United States, Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources, Division on Earth and Life Studies, National Research Council |year=2008 |publisher=National Academies Press |isbn=978-0309134392 |page=286 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zhXfZvQIRV8C |access-date=29 December 2013}}</ref> With sheep numbers declining in that country the profession sees significantly less interest in becoming a qualified shearer.  Importing labour during the Australian off-season has also become problematic because of delays in obtaining work visa and because shearers numbers are limited worldwide.<ref name="citsi"/>