156 TUTIRA 



been using inferior rams, had been breeding from badly-woolled sires. 

 We imported our rams high-priced Vermont sheep from the South 

 Island. They died wholesale. They were two-tooths, and could not 

 stand the change in the quality of the grass ; each year we lost about 

 three-quarters of them. During autumn they did inferior work as 

 sires, during winter they scoured themselves to death. 1 



Even such shreds of knowledge as we had acquired a little know- 

 ledge is a dangerous thing hurt us. Our three months' cadetship on 

 Captain afterwards Sir William Russell's Tunanui station had taught 

 us that indiscriminate burning of fern was unwise. This teaching, sound 

 in itself, was applied by us on Tutira without discrimination. No fern- 

 burning was done, therefore, because the work was to be done perfectly 

 at a later date. From this determination not to burn fern until the 

 countryside had become rough enough to ensure a "clean fire" arose 

 other evils which, although unavoidable in themselves, were accentuated 

 by mismanagement. " Lungworm," which broke out in Hawke's Bay in 

 the early 'eighties, everywhere ran its course with all the virulence of a 

 new importation, whether blight, weed, or beast. 



In a wet locality like Tutira the disease could not but have affected 

 young stock otherwise than seriously. On the good runs of Hawke's Bay 

 the losses were considerable. Everywhere sheep-farmers were dosing their 

 young sheep with turpentine and oil, or attempting the smoke-cure with 

 sulphur. In a flock like that of Tutira, jammed by the process of con- 

 traction already explained on to foul camps, overstocked tops and clear- 

 ings, three-quarters of our weaners, station-bred, and therefore by far the 

 most valuable section of the flock, perished. 



Another trouble of these times was footrot. With the increase of 

 English grass it was becoming impossible to keep the merino on his feet. 

 The breed was unsuited to the soil and climate of the province. The area 

 of marl land in grass on Tutira was small, but upon that area footrot was 

 rampant. Like lungworm, it too found a congenial nidus in dirty sheep 

 camps, crowded grounds, and wet grass. For several years after our 

 purchase of Tutira, an average of 25 per cent of our ewes were lame dur- 



1 Young stock, two-tooths, however well done, are particularly liable to suffer from change 

 to a wetter climate. Twenty years later than these troublous times, again an experimental lot 

 of two-tooth rams was bought for Tutira. Notwithstanding that they were run on ground 

 more fertile by far than that upon -which they had previously depastured, more than half died. 

 Doubtless other wet district sheep-farmers who have purchased stock from dry country have 

 experienced similar results. 



