6o6 



ones. This defect may be started with the foundation of the flock, 

 and kept up by careless breeding and neglect in the culling of the 

 ewes. With a flock ranging from a few hundreds to a few thousands 

 the breeding should be as carefully managed as in a stud flock. 



I have found that where the farmer can raise the breed of 

 sheep he most fancies, the flock is always better managed and more 

 profitable, than where, from the nature of the soil and climate, he 

 is obliged to raise a variety for which he has no liking. 



The most hopeless of all flocks is that of the man who bought 

 a lot of cheap culls to commence with and breeds regularly from 

 rams for which he pays a few shillings per head. Such a flock in 

 a few years has no type, but possesses in a high degree every bad 

 quality that a flock should not have. 



DIFFICULTIES TO CONTEND WITH. 



There is practically no limit to the enterprise of the Australian 

 sheep farmer, but this business, like every other, is not without its 

 trials and difficulties. In taking up new country, and in entering 

 into the business of a cheep farmer for the first time, many difficul- 

 ties will be encountered ; but, as in the past we have seen these 

 difficulties overcome, so it will in the future, particularly when 

 resolute men put their hearts into the business. Will is power. 

 I have seen a man go straight from the shop to the sheep walk, 

 without the slightest knowledge of the business of sheep farming, 

 and without any apprenticeship in the new walk of life, and yet 

 make a success, simply because he put his whole heart and intelli- 

 gence into the work, and was determined to carry it out to the best 

 of his ability. The difficulties the sheep farmer has to contend 

 with are always more formidable when the climate is hot and dry 

 and the soil poor, though an excess of moisture, on the other hand, 

 is often very unfavorable to the business. 



I can remember when sheep farming was first undertaken in 

 Riverina. The merino grew to a much larger size than in Victoria, 

 but the fleece was of the very worst description. The staple was 

 short and coarse, of very little strength, and full of kemps. The 

 sheep farmers of the western district of Victoria (the Australia Felix 

 of the early settlers) used to predict most sagely that it was an 

 impossibility to grow wool on the northern side of the Murray 

 river. At the present day the province of Riverina produces wool 

 of the highest class, longer in staple than that of Victoria, stronger 

 in fibre, and of equal lustre, and the fleeces weigh heavier. This 

 is the experience that has been gone through with nearly every 

 advance the sheep farmers have made into the great thirst land of 

 central Australia. Districts that twenty-five years ago were regarded 

 as almost desert, are now stocked with sheep that yield fleeces of 

 an excellent and profitable description of wool. 



