THE IMPORTANT SHEEP COUNTRIES 17 



tively slow. Sheep .scab has been very hard to contend with, and 

 measures adopted by the Government have not yet proved adequate 

 for keeping it under control. The black natives upon whom many 

 sheepmen have had to depend for labor,, have not been very reliable, 

 and, therefore, because of the poor quality of labor, it has not been 

 possible to produce as good mutton and wool as natural conditions 

 would warrant. Further, predatory animals, jackals especially, 

 have hindered the growth of the sheep industry by enforcing expense 

 in erecting fences and by making it hazardous to keep sheep in 

 certain sections. And finally, South Africa, like Australia, is sub- 

 ject to drouths which visit great hardships on sheep owners; in fact, 

 they are the worst drawback to sheep raising. They are mos pro- 

 nounced in that part of the interior known as the Karroo, but 

 periodically they also extend over the Transvaal, Orange Free State, 

 and parts of Natal. Their effect is all the more severe because 

 they usually come just after a period of such good feed in the veld 

 districts that sheep owners have been tempted into overstocking. 

 But in spite of the drawbacks, which after all every country pos- 

 sesses to greater or less extent, South Africa is making marked 

 progress in wool production. Sheep owners are very much interested 

 in breeding; they are giving much more attention to classing and 

 grading wool for market than formerly, and in still other ways they 

 are manifesting keen interest in sheep husbandry. 



The tendency of recent years has been in favor of the big-framed 

 robust-wooled type of Merino, the Wanganellas and Rambouillet, 

 whilst at the present time, the crossing of strictly mutton breeds, 

 such as the Southdown, Suffolk, and Shropshire, on Merino ewes 

 is attracting attention. 



It is a significant fact that American breeders, more especially 

 Ohio and Michigan men, annually exported a number of Rambouil- 

 lets and Merinos to South Africa until the outbreak of the war in 

 1914. 



The Important Sheep Countries. In the foregoing brief his- 

 torical review of sheep raising the countries mentioned have each 

 received separate attention, not only because they belong at the top 

 of the list of the great sheep countries of the world, but also because 

 they are the most important of the newer countries. Of course, 

 other countries than these keep large numbers of sheep and the fol- 

 lowing tabulation shows the importance of sheep in various coun- 

 2 



