8 SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 



be here stated. M. Moll, the distinguished scientific reporter 

 on Wool at the Paris Exposition of 1867, says : " We observe 

 that it is the vine and mulberry which best suits the ovine 

 species in general, and the fine-woolled races in particular." 

 It need not be remarked that the more southerly States 

 emphatically belong to the vine-bearing zone. The great 

 merino wool-clip of the world is produced in even warmer 

 latitudes. The Argentine Republic, standing second in 

 the world in the supply of the wools of commerce, having 

 57,501,260 sheep, producing 216,000,000 Ibs., has a climate 

 where the cold of winter is so moderate as to produce no 

 more severe effects than slight hoar-frosts, which disappear 

 with the morning's sun. Its wools, chiefly merino, are fine 

 and soft ; having, as their principal defect, the burr clinging 

 to the fleece, derived from the white medoc or clover, on 

 which the sheep feed, unfortunately in that country insep- 

 arably connected with the productive lands and best pas- 

 turage. The most productive merino-wool regions in Europe 

 are the southern provinces of the Russian Empire, where the 

 climate is so mild that the sheep require shelter and fodder 

 only about six weeks in winter. Single flocks in that country 

 reach to fifty, seventy-five, a hundred thousand, and even 

 four hundred thousand head. Specimens of merino wools 

 from this region, shown at the Centennial Exhibition, in fine- 

 ness and extreme length of staple surpassed any exhibited. 

 Mr. Graham, author of the most accepted handbook of the 

 sheep husbandry of Australia, asserts that " The ' Salt-bush ' 

 country in New South Wales, a region of excessive heat, can 

 and does in some instances produce as heavy and valuable 

 wool as do any other portions of the Australian colonies. It 

 was the received dictum, in 1845, that the climate of the 

 Darling Downs, within the tropics, was too hot for the growth 

 of wool. The Superintendent of the Clyde Company thought 

 otherwise, and adopted a careful and judicious system of 

 selection. In eight or nine years, the Darling Downs pro- 

 duced as good wool as any grown in Australia, although it 

 still bore the name of hot-country wool." 



To the Northern farmer, accustomed to see his sheep and 



