LIVE STOCK, ETC., IN TASMANIA. 
221 
and Saxon flocks in Europe by enterprising colonists, and 
by the agents of the Van Diemen’s Land Company, the 
purity and excellence of whose live stock of every description 
long maintained a high character, and fetched the highest 
prices. The capabilities and suitability of Tasmania for the 
production of wool of the finest fibre and highest value for 
the purposes of the manufacturer is well known. The high 
prices commanded in the English market bv wool from the 
flocks of Messrs. Kermode, Smith, Maclanachan, &c., prac¬ 
tically attest the fact. Its character was acknowledged to be 
of the highest order at the London Exhibition of 1851, and 
at Paris in 1855. The capacity of the island for maintaining 
a much larger number of sheep than are at present depastured 
there can scarcely be doubted. For a long time sheep-owners 
in Tasmania cultivated fineness and softness of fibre ex¬ 
clusively, and the result was a delicate animal and com¬ 
paratively light carcase, but a change took place with the 
rise in the value of animal food, and for many years past it 
has been the aim of flock-owners to combine length of staple 
with fineness of fibre to the utmost extent which they can 
command, a course by which they obtain a much heavier 
fleece, and a larger and probably hardier animal. With this 
view the highly improved Merinos have been crossed with the 
Leicester, New Leicester, and South Down breeds, &c., and 
in many instances with great success. From the statistical 
tables published by governments are extracted the following 
return of sheep depastured in the colony, and of the value of 
wool exported therefrom in the years mentioned. In 1623 
wool was exported to the extent of about 1000 bales. In the 
year 
1839 
No. of Sheep. 
898, 590 
Value of Wool. 
£194,647 
1844 
1,145,089 
176,269 
1849 
1,712,291 
202,334 
1854 
1,831,308 
325,384 
1859 
1,697,199 
467,968 
There appears to have been a falling off in the number of 
sheep in the colony since 1854, but on closely examining 
the returns I find the weight of wool exported in 1854 stated 
to have been 4,419,276 lbs., while in 1859 it was 6,107,903, 
and as there is a nearly corresponding difference in the value, 
it may be concluded that small sheep of short wool and light 
fleece, had been replaced to some extent with sheep of larger 
frame and longer and heavier wool. Upon artificial pastures, 
along the north and north-west coast, where the climate is 
humid as well as warm, the Leicesters attain a size and 
