PEOFITS OF WOOL PEODUCTIOX. 99 



ue of ■which is therefore about £90 per year, or 4s. Gd. per 

 iep. * * Three hundred sheep have in this manner 

 ith ' a standing fold on some dry and convenient spot, well 

 ;ered with straw or stubble,') produced eighty large cart- 

 .ds of dung between October and March, and in this 

 nner, after the expenses have been deducted, each sheep 

 i earned Sd. per week." 



A hundred Merino sheep, given abundance of bedding, 

 11, between December 1st and May Ist, make at least forty 

 o- horse loads of manure ^— and if fed roots, considerably 

 ire. I scarcely need to say that both the summer and 

 ater manure of the sheep is far more valuable than that 

 the horse or cow.* Its manure on high-priced land which 

 juires fertilizers, cannot be estimated at less than 50 cents 

 r head per annum, and I should be inclined to put it 

 11 higher. 



The value of the lambs and manure is the minimum of 

 afit. That profit increases just as. the market value of land 

 d the cost of keeping decreases. On the rich plains of 

 3 West and South-west, manure is not yet reckoned among 

 3 appreciable profits, and the cost of transporting wool to 

 irket is from one to two cents per pound. The Western 

 ower, then, gets the lamb and about half the fleece, as the 

 ofit on each sheep. The Texan grower gets the lamb and 

 out three-quarters of the fleece, and so on. I do not 

 duct the extra prices paid from, time to time for rams, 

 cause each good one vastly more than pays for himself in 

 3reasing the value of the flock. 



The prices of lambs of different blood and in different 

 ices, vary too much to admit of even an approximately 

 iform rate of estimating them. But it does not anywhere 

 St more to raise a fuU - blood than a grade Merino lamb. 



* Horses are not used as depastnring animals in any of the older States. The 

 [owing remarks appeared in my Beport on Fine- Wool Hasbandry, 1862 : — " If milch 

 vs are not returned to their pastiiresat night in summer, or the manure made in the 

 ht is not returned to the pastures, the di^rence in the two animals in the particular 

 ned in the text, is still greater. Even grazing cattle kept constantly in the pastures, 

 1 whose manure is much better than that of dairy cows, are still greatly inferior to 

 ! sheep in enriching land. The manure of sheep is stronger, better distributed, and 

 tribnted in a way that admits of little loss. The small round pellets soon work 

 vn among the roots of the grass, and are in a great measure protected from sun and 

 ad. Each pellet has a coat of mucus which still further protects it. On taking one 

 these out of the grass, it will be found the moisture is gradually dissolving it on the 

 rer side, directly among the roots, while the upper coated surface remains entire, 

 lally, if there are hill tops, dry knolls, or elevations of any kind in the pasture, the 

 iep almost invariably lie on them nights, thus depositing an extra portion of manure 

 the least fertile part of the land, and where the wash ofit will be less wasted. The 

 nure of the milch cow, apart from its intrinsic inferiority, is deposited in masses 

 ich give up their best contents to the atmosphere before they are dry enough to be 

 iten to pieces and distributed over the soil." 



