THE SQUATTER'S FOES 226 



foot-and-mouth disease in cattle and as foot-rot in sheep. 

 The cause of its reappearance is unknown, but it gener- 

 ally accompanied the rich herbage that grew on certain 

 fertile soils. The results of it were that flocks were 

 habitually lame, and the yield of wool Avas greatly re- 

 duced. Many hands had to be employed on sheep- 

 stations ; and the son of a large squatter would tell, 

 as late as 1884, how he and his men, for two or three 

 weeks together, had been occupied in paring the hooves 

 of some twenty or thirty thousand sheep. 



Larger animals than the bacteria that engender scab 

 and foot-rot have been less formidable, because they 

 can be extirpated. On cattle-runs kangaroos eat up the 

 grass. The dingoes, or Native dogs, did not at first 

 show themselves, but began to appear on stations when 

 they found there was food to be had ; * they ate calves 

 and foals, worried sheep, and destroyed lambs. In some 

 parts their destruction has checked the disappearance 

 of the kangaroos, on which they preyed. All such 

 mammals are vanishing with the black denizens of the 

 Continent. 



The kia, or parrot, that feeds on the kidneys of sheep 

 in New Zealand, is comparatively isolated, and the mis- 

 chief it has done grows less, year by year. Other avian 

 pests need only be noted. " Crows and eagle-hawks are 

 our worst enemies," wrote a Victorian pioneer.* They 

 alone are likely to persist. 



Whether the more destructive pests can be completely 

 eradicated is still a question. The vast inorganic foes 

 of the squatter, drought and flood, present a more for- 

 midable problem. Yet much has already been accom- 

 pHshed. Wells have been sunk on every station, and, 

 by means of artesian bores, the great, parched interior 

 and western plains are being irrigated by the plenteous 

 waters flowing underground, or stored -up there for 

 countless ages. Nay, the scientists themselves, with Sir 

 Oliver Lodge at their head, encourage us to hope that 

 the day is at hand when electrical science, which has 

 * Victorian Pioneers, p. 148. 

 15 



