4.76 REPORT—1905. 
Compare the beautiful wool of Australia with the Spanish wool of to-day, and it 
is difficult to believe that a hundred years ago they were common stock. Crossing 
with the heavy English sheep may be satisfactory in temperate climes, within easy 
access of seaports, so as to cater for the frozen-meat trade, but for up-country South 
Africa the merino is best. 
The longer the merino staple the more valuable it is; therefore the system 
sometimes practised in South Africa of shearing twice a year is unwise and 
improvident. 
Suppose a man had a flock of one hundred sheep, and he sheared half the number 
each six months, the other half at the end of twelve months, the account would 
stand something like this :— 
Six Months’ Wool, Twelve Months’ Wool. 
f00 lbs. @ Td. : . £14 11 8] 500 lbs.@ Std. . oT a2 
Less cost of twiceshearing 2 0 0j| Lesscostofshearing . ‘Ti OE, 
£12 11 8) £16 14 2 
Difference in favour of twelve months . £4 2 6 
Machine-shearing is preferable to hand-shearing. Washing sheep before shear- 
ing is waste labour. Scouring the wool after shearing is, as a rule, undesirable, 
but in some instances is policy in South Africa, Too much stress cannot be laid. 
upon classing and careful sorting. Clots of dung rolled up in the fleeces mean that 
the grower pays all cost of sending dirt to Europe and of picking it out when it gets 
there. The market of the world is London, and, notwithstanding the extent to 
which Australasian growers realise at home, values are fixed by London sales, and 
there a grower is certain of most competition, as buyers from all the manu- 
facturing districts of the world (except Japan) are in daily attendance during the 
wool sales, 
2. Changes in the Sources of the World’s Wheat Supply since 1880, 
By A, L. Bowiry. 
Statistics were given showing the production, importation, and exportation or 
wheat of the principal countries from 1880 to 1908. The great increase in this 
period and the considerable changes in sources were discussed, and the variability 
of the harvests of the separate countries was contrasted with the stability of the 
world’s harvest, The lessening proportion of those engaged in agriculture to the 
population as a whole was shown by statistics, and certain conclusions as to the 
Increasing economy of wheat production were drawn. 
3. The Importation from Abroad of Foodstuffs producible in Cape 
Colony. By E. Nosss. 
The solution of the problem of importation from abroad of foodstuffs pro- 
ducible in the Colony can only be settled by cheapening the modes of production 
and distribution, so as to enable locally grown articles to compete successfully 
against the imported article. At present hundreds of thousands of pounds worth 
of articles are being annually imported which could be readily produced here, and 
this is a very different matter from importing commodities which we cannot 
produce. 
The idea of this paper is not to analyse the question fully, but merely to 
render more easily available facts and figures which are at present buried in 
statistical returns. Owing to the lack of agricultural statistics of the products of 
the Colony, it is not possible to determine how far the articles herein mentioned 
can be replaced by colonial production. 
The Colony, owing to war, pestilence, and drought, is not in a stable condition, 
but things are improving more rapidly than is generally thought. The imports of 
agricultural produce were considerably less in 1904 than in 1903; while those of 
