Dec. 1894.] 



GENERAL AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 



219 



and 1892, of 23 per cent. Assuming the consumption of mutton 

 in the Colony to have been relatively equal for each of the three 

 years, the number of sheep otherwise disposed of differed 

 materially last year. In 1891-2, the yearly average number of 

 sheep preserved, frozen, boiled down, and disposed of by excess 

 of export over import was estimated at 495,712, or just over 

 two per cent, on the mean number of sheep in the Colony. 

 In 1892-3 2,080,065 sheep, or rather more than 11 per cent, 

 were, it appears, relegated to foreign markets by means of one 

 or the other of the above-mentioned channels; no less than 

 793,290 having been exported over the. border in excess of those 

 imported in the same way. It is also pointed out that in years 

 of drought, such as 1893, proprietors are forced to dispose in 

 some manner of their sheep, the usual method being to boil 

 down to prevent total loss from want of feed and water, and 

 that, at such a time, lambs are destroyed wholesale to preserve 

 the ewes. 



As an example of the progress of the pastoral industry in the 

 Colony, it may be observed that, in 1886, rather more than one 

 million pounds weight of meat were preserved or frozen ; whilst in 

 1892 and 1893, 28,273,600 lbs. and 40,466,328 lbs. respectively 

 were thus dealt with ; in the latter year also 11,183 tons of tallow 

 were produced as compared with a production of only 97 tons 

 in 1886. 



The opportunities afforded for the disposal of the surplus stock 

 of the Colony are said to have been greatly extended by the 

 expansion of the meat trade with Europe ; and the export of 

 stock alive, and not in the carcase, is a matter of too great 

 importance to be lightly overlooked. In respect of cattle, 

 Queensland is the premier producer in point of numbers of all 

 Australasia, and consequently has always exported a large num- 

 ber of beasts to supply beef for the southern markets. The 

 fiscal policy of Victoria has, however, recently almost closed the 

 markets of that Colony to Queensland stock, and in New South 

 Wales a similar result has been in part brought about by the 

 necessity forced upon that Colony of purchasing less fat cattle in 

 order that she may consume her rapidly-increasing surplus of 

 sheep. But, notwithstanding the circumstances above referred 

 to, Queensland exported last year 176,660 cattle in excess of the 

 number imported. 



Sheep claim a primary value as wool producers, the number 

 in Queensland being so much within the capabilities of the 

 Colony. The Southern Colonies, moreover, are not often in need 

 of this kind of stock. The imports of sheep into Queensland, 

 therefore, usually exceed the exports, although in some years 

 special circumstances cause a reversal of this rule. In 1893, for 

 instance, the exports more than quadrupled the imports, 

 amounting, as previously stated, to 793,290 in excess of the 

 imports. It is probable that the drought on the south-western 

 border may have had something to do with this, as it may have 



