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 
fioures. 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 
Good 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 
esteemed 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 “ Vermonts” referred to. 
For an 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°—Bull. 318—15 2 
