SHEEP AND WOOL. 157 



different results. Again, the sandstone and other formations 

 which are notably deficient in lime, are subject to many 

 diseases peculiar to them. When pleuro-pneumonia was 

 rife in America some years ago, it was then stated that on 

 farms where the cattle had access to water coming from 

 the limestone formation, there was the least infection of 

 animals from the disease, and the fewest deaths. Nearly 

 every district has its own individual experience with 

 diseases, which are affected largely, there is every reason 

 to believe, by the prevailing geographical surroundings. 

 Chemical analysis has revealed that the framework of 

 animal life is composed largely of minerals found in the 

 soil. Enough has been ascertained on these points to 

 encourage further investigation ; and it is hoped that 

 science may yet be able to map the area and region of 

 diseases as accurately as the different characters of the 

 surface soils. 



XV. SHEEP AND WOOL. SMALL AND LARGE FLOCKS. 



THERE has been enough done to prove that sheep can 

 be made to pay in flocks of hundreds as well as thousands, 

 and that the idea of the country being suitable only for 

 squatting, and dependence on the native grasses only is 

 amongst the notions of the past. Victoria and our own 

 southern districts offer striking examples of successful 

 changes from the old style of squatting to a system of 

 grazing-f arming. The bulk of the cattle and sheep raised 

 there are on sections of less than 2,000 acres. Some of the 

 most successful men carry on operations on less than 500 

 acres ; though for years we were assured that in the hands of 

 farmers the staple product of export wool was to 

 disappear or become so worthless as not to pay for carriage 

 to the European market ! Beyond this, the carcase was 

 thoroughly to deteriorate. Of course, no one with any 

 exercised sense believed such extreme views, and none 



