1004 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



up to 320 acres, and pay for it in easy installments. A run is 

 seldom less than twenty-five square miles; an average is from 

 150 to 600 square miles, and they sometimes exceed 2,000. 



Immense tracts of territory suffer seriously from the depre- 

 dations of the kangaroo, which lives mostly in the open, and of 

 the "wallaby," which infests the "bush." These animals make 

 their appearance suddenly in enormous numbers and consume 

 all the grass, so that the sheep have to be driven off. The 

 settlers make war on them by hiring bands of hunters to shoot 

 them. As in all these arid, dusty countries, scab is a terrible 

 plague to the shepherd. Government inspectors are appointed 

 over designated districts, and the requirements as to the inspec- 

 tion of infected flocks are very rigid, though less rigidly enforced. 



Shearing is done in November and December, running 

 through both months on large ranges. Shearers are paid about 

 a sovereign ($5.11) per one hundred head; "roustabouts" an 

 equal sum per week, and "musterers" six shillings ($1.38) per 

 day. The skirts are detached from the fleeces, leaving clear 

 body-wool, which is loosely tied with very light twine and 

 packed in bales of four hundred to four hundred and twenty 

 pounds. The wool fetches in Melbourne or Sidney from four- 

 teen to twenty-seven cents, according to grade, the former being 

 the price of offal, while choice clips, with skirts out, bring the 

 higher figure. 



Australia fleeces average from four and a half to six pounds 

 of unwashed wool, the fiber being generally fine, true, and 

 sound, though an occasional severe and protracted drought makes 

 it jointed. American manufacturers rather prefer it over do- 

 mestic fleece at the same figure on account of its fine working 

 qualities, the absence of dung and fribs in the fleeces, and the 

 light wastage in the scouring-tub. Australian unwashed loses only 

 two or three per cent more in scouring than American washed. 



South America offers great attractions to the flock-mas- 

 ter in some respects. For instance, in Buenos Ayres, one hun- 

 dred Spanish squares (450 acres) will support one thousand 

 sheep, while in Texas two acres are allowed to the sheep. There 

 are over fifty-seven million sheep in the Argentine Republic. So- 



