CHAPTEE XXIV. 

 THE SCOPE FOR INTENSIVE SHEEP FARMING. 



A New Zealand farmer lately described to a meeting 

 of farmers how 700 a year is earned from an area of 

 40 acres devoted to sheep. Lucerne and rape are the 

 mainstay ; five acres of the former and three of rape, 

 with the whole farm, which is not the very best of land, 

 divided into ten paddocks. The lucerne is made into 

 hay. Naturally there is an element of " dealing " in 

 the operations as carried out in this case, for it would not 

 do to keep a permanent flock on such a circumscribed 

 area. The following account of the transactions for one 

 year indicates the course pursued : Bought 430 ewes in 

 the autumn; had a 127% lambing; sold all the first lot 

 fat to the butchers for 21/-, 21/6; in December all the 

 ewes went off fat, and a line of wethers were purchased 

 to be also fattened before it was necessary to obtain 

 the breeding ewes for the coming winter. 



No definite experiment has been made with lucerne 

 alone and sheep in New Zealand, but it is known in Aus- 

 tralia that an irrigated lucerne paddock carried 75 sheep 

 per acre for four months. The lucerne, which was cut and 

 fed to the flock in an adjacent paddock, was growng 

 just as vigorously when the sheep, at the end of the 

 time, were disposed of. Last winter a South Island 

 farmer, from two acres of pitted mangolds, fed, with 

 some straw, a flodk of 400 ewes through the winter in 

 good style. 



These are bases that give great inducement to a 

 consideration of intensive sheep farming. Regard must 

 be given, however, to the points surrounding the under- 

 taking in other respects. It does not do to close feed and 



