4 BULLETIN 313, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 



lack of appreciation of the results obtainable from carefully tended 

 flocks. 



GENERAL CONDITIONS OF SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN AUSTRALIA. 



Even a superficial study of the peculiar phases of the sheep 

 industry in the country where it has its greatest magnitude must 

 be of great interest and may be very profitable. While conditions 

 and customs of sheep raising vary greatly in Australia, the varia- 

 tions are less marked than in the United States. The sheep industry 

 of Australia is still in the main what an American would call a 

 "range proposition." Crossbreeding and mutton production are 

 of less concern even than in our Rocky Mountain and other western 

 sheep-raising States. 



New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland possessed 85 per cent 

 of the 83,263,686 sheep in Australia in 1912. Queensland is the larg- 

 est and least developed of the three States mentioned. Eighty per 

 cent of its land is occupied, 74 per cent being held under Govern- 

 ment lease or license. On the 343,000,000 acres occupied in Queens- 

 land there are 3,119 flocks which average 6,500 sheep. Data regard- 

 ing size of holdings and size of flocks are available only for New South 

 Wales and Victoria, consequently figures for only these two States, 

 which possess 60 per cent of the Commonwealth's sheep, are shown 

 in the following table, and data for the western United States are 

 included for comparison : 



Sheep in New South Wales, Victoria, and the western part of the United States. 



Section. 



Total area. 



Total area 

 owned. 1 



Per cent 

 of area 

 having 



15 inches 

 or less 



rainfall. 



Area under 

 lease or 

 license. 



Total acres 



in holdings 



over 100 



acres. 



New South Wales 



Victoria 



Rocky Mountain States 2 

 Southwestern States 3 . . . 

 Pacific States 4 



A cres. 

 198,054,420 

 56,245,760 

 398,599,680 

 319,175,040 

 203,580,800 



Acres. 

 57,818,023 

 31,055,920 

 47,016,786 

 124,951,701 

 51,328,789 



Per cent. 

 39.4 

 37.0 

 72.0 

 15.0 

 37.0 



Acres. 

 124,590,163 

 14,443,191 



Acres. 



181, 195, 753 

 44, 502, 618 

 45,155,275 



113,281,343 

 48,027,762 



Section. 



Total 

 sheep. 



Sheep per 

 acre on 

 holdings 



over 

 100 acres. 



Number of 

 flocks. 



size of 

 flock. 



Sheep in 



flocks over 



1,000. 



New South Wales 



Victoria 



Rocky Mountain States 2 

 Southwestern States 3 . . . 

 Pacific States 4 



Number. 

 38,855,861 

 11,892,224 

 18,196,574 

 6,382,426 

 5,592,167 



Number. 

 0.21 

 .25 

 .308 

 .056 

 .116 



Number. 

 25, 549 

 24,838 

 11,323 

 11,881 

 12, 368 



Number. 



1,520 

 480 



1,607 

 537 

 452 



Per cent. 

 84.5 

 59.7 

 86.8 

 80.6 

 89.7 



1 Reported as in farms for United States. 



2 Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado. 



3 Texas, Arizona, New Mexico. 



4 California, Oregon, Washington. 



