=Sheep Pelts.=--The handling of sheep pelts, especially in hot weather, requires careful attention. The pelts, as soon as taken off, should be spread out in a room where it is as cold as possible without being refrigerated, and allowed to cool off for at least twelve hours before salting. This is especially necessary when the animal slaughtered has a very heavy fleece; with shearlings there is little or no necessity for taking this precaution. Fleece skins, however, hold the heat, so that when put into a pack and salted, if not properly cooled, they soon begin to warm and decompose, and as soon as the wool slips, the leather of the skin is ruined. After the pelts have been spread out and allowed to thoroughly chill, as suggested, they should be salted in piles not to exceed thirty inches high by putting one skin on top of another, flesh side up, and using a fine solar salt, care being taken that they are thoroughly salted around the heads and leggings. After they have been in salt for a week, it is well, especially in warm weather, to overhaul them, shifting the packs so that when through, the top pelts are on the bottom and vice versa. After they have lain in salt for two weeks they are ready for shipment. CHAPTER XII OLEO OIL AND STEARINE. FATS -- ORIGIN OF BUTTERINE -- OLEO OIL -- OLEO FATS -- SELECTION AND CARE -- CLEANLINESS AND COLLECTION -- CHILLING FAT -- COOLING WATER -- MELTING -- SETTLING THE OIL -- CLARIFIERS -- SCRAP VAT -- SEEDING OR GRAINING OIL -- PRESS ROOM -- COLLECTING OIL -- OIL RECEIVERS -- TEMPERATURE OF OIL DRAWN TO TIERCE -- STEARINE -- OIL HOUSE YIELDS -- GRADING FATS -- TESTS ON OIL FATS -- BUTCHER FATS -- MUTTON FAT -- OIL SELECTION -- OIL HOUSE OPERATION. =Fats.=--The largest item of value in slaughtered cattle is the beef. As already stated, the second largest item is hides. The third item in value is fats. It has been one of the world’s staple articles of trade for centuries and is made use of in the manufacture of many kinds of articles for man’s use, from those of comfort to those of destruction, perhaps only displaced in its multitude of uses by the one raw product, coal tar.