SHEEP UNITED STATES, NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALIA. 9 



This division of the ewes into uniform lots is deemed to be of 

 greatest importance. On one station visited, where only wethers are 

 kept, it is the custom to go over purchased stock before shearing 

 and make an examination of each fleece. Once assorted in this way 

 a flock may run for several seasons with only such re-sorting as is 

 made necessary by mixing or the presence of strays. After shearing, 

 the ewes need only such attention as is given by the boundary riders 

 until breeding time, when mustering is necessary only to remove the 

 rams at the close of the season. 



LAMBING RETURNS. 



The lambing returns do not differ widely from western American 

 figures. Three per cent is the common proportion of rams used. 

 Lamb crops vary around 80 per cent, less in young ewes and more in 

 stud ewes. Where the blood of British or mutton breeds has been in- 

 troduced larger lamb crops result. 



Fall-dropped lambs are separated from their dams at shearing 

 time and, though only 3 to 5 months old, are also shorn. Shearing 

 at this age allows better growth of the lamb and gives their yearling 

 fleeces greater uniformity in length and quality. 



BUILDINGS. 



Aside from the shearing sheds, no buildings for sheep' are seen 

 except occasional sheds in near-by paddocks to keep the sheep dry as 

 they come up for shearing. No feed of consequence is harvested or 

 stored. In drought times purchased feed may be fed, but the com- 

 moner plan is to ship the sheep to points where grazing can be leased. 



BREEDS AND TYPES OF SHEEP IN AUSTRALIA. 



Over 70 per cent of the sheep in Australia to-day are of Merino 

 breeding. Of the crossbreds that make up a large part of the bal- 

 ance, most are from Merino ewes. Australia's sheep industry began 

 with sheep of Spanish Merino blood imported from the Cape of 

 flood Hope and from England, late in the eighteenth century. Con- 

 siderable numbers of Saxony Merinos were taken to Tasmania and 

 that State for some time produced many of the rams most highly 

 'Uemed on the mainland. The Australian Merino has therefore 

 sprung from the same original stock as the American Merino. In 

 the palmy days of fine- wool sheep breeding in Vermont many sheep 

 were exported from that State to Australia. American Merinos 

 are seldom spoken of by that name in Australia, but one frequently 

 hears " Verrnorits " referred to. 



For no American, the point of greatest interest and value in 

 Australian sheep husbandry is the type of sheep that has been 

 evolved for the profitable production of wool. There is nothing in 

 6830° Ball. 813—15 2 



