Shearing Lambs
By Henry E. Butler
All the wethers have been settled,
And on ewes we've just begun;
But we're feeling rather nettled,
For we start on lambs next run,
Shearing lambs,
Wrinkly lambs.
Well, I've done a bit of shearing,
Still, I don't say I'm a gun.
But the prospect's far from cheering
When you know there's lambs next run;
Shearing lambs,
Short-woolled lambs.
There's the whistle, it's the cut-out
Of the ewes. Now there'll be fun
When the classer gets the wool out;
We'll be on to lambs this run,
And such lambs--
From Vermont rams!
Now then, lads, the boss will "chip" you.
Get a "clean cut" on, old son,
For it wouldn't do to sack you
Till you've shorn at least one run
Of these lambs,
Struggling lambs.
Well, I never saw such rotters,
And of rough 'uns I've shorn some.
They were wrinkles to the trotters,
Were the lambs we shore that run.
Shearing lambs,
Wrinkly lambs.
Still we struggled through them gamely,
Floating wrinkles here and there.
And we earned our "quid" a hundred,
And earned it fair and square,
In those lambs,
Rough, short-woolled lambs.
Notes
From the Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser Wednesday 17 October 1906 p. 995.
About the Author
THE TECHNICAL COLLEGE. THE WOOL CLASSES. (From The Sydney Stock and Station Journal Friday 11 August 1905 p. 3.)
Good work is being done in the training of young men, at the Woolclassing Department of the Technical College, Sydney. It will surprise most readers to learn that all the day students at the class are engaged for sheds, each one having; from two to four sheds, and that at extreme rates. If there were 150 students, they could all find remunerative work, for the demand is very great and that speaks well for the teaching power of the classes and the estimation in which the work of the college is held. We purpose saying something about the teaching done by Mr. Hawkesworth for the place ought to be better known than it is.
In the meantime we give the pass-list for 1905 in the wool-classing examinations:--Honours: Lucien G. Bonnefin, Sydney; Albert A. Griffith, Orange; Harold D. Cutler, Sydney; Gilbert Pntchard, Sydney ; Walter L. Hickenbotham, Victoria ; Claude V. Terry, Yass; Benjamin J. Taylor, Bankstown ; Henry E Butler Sydney ; Andrew B. McLennan, Narrandera; Arthur G. Thomas, Sydney; Victor R. Taylor, Bathurst; Robert W. Chilcott, Queensland.