1 Dec., 1901.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 581 
these manures is taken into consideration. As far as I can read it, it seems to me 
to be able to carry from half as much again to double as much. That land 
ten years ago would not have carried one-third of this stock. (Hear, hear.) 
I question if that field could have kept fifty ewes and lambs satisfactorily. 
I know this very well: That it would not have been in anything like the condi- 
tion it is to-day. These lambs, I reckon, if sold, would realise from 8s. to 15s., 
or somewhere thereabout. 1 am perfectly sure of getting 8s. an acre from that 
addock from the sale of the lambs. See where the adventage comes in. 
inion the lambs alone I am getting all the money paid for the manures that 
Tused. It is in that direction of sheep, then, that we, as farmers in South 
Australia, must look for the special development of the future. We cannot 
forecast what the home market is to be, but we must take our chances in that; 
and from the experience of past years we are justified, at any rate, in believing 
that it will continue so, or something similar, in the future. (Hear, hear.) Our 
farmers are more appreciative of sheep than they were. I believe the farmer 
has come to realise the importance of the trade, and the fact that the sheep 
enrich the ground. We have practically three times the number of farmers 
keeping sheep now compared with a few years ago. A report of an address I 
gave ten years ago says:—‘‘Ona farm of 700 or 800 acres he saw no reason 
why there should not be a £50 or £60 wool bill, and £40 obtained from sheep 
otherwise. The owner ought to have upwards of £100 a year for his sheep, 
and be nothing the poorer otherwise.” ‘That was in the days when the practice 
was neglected, and I was lecturing to a meeting of farmers in which I do not 
think there was one in twenty who kept sheep, and I was impressing upon them 
what a man could do on a farm of 700 acres. Sheep on a farm give you many 
advantages and profits which you could not otherwise obtain. So far as I can 
read there is no industry in this State that gives so much promise as this matter 
of keeping sheep, and breedirig the best sort of lambs for export; and even 
if the farm should be small the farmers could keep a few sheep to advantage. 
You are getting the manure from your sheep, and so enriching the land; you 
are getting the wool, and altogether you are getting a handsome return. I 
think that if it is properly understood that fat lambs for export at any rate are 
to be handled with the very greatest care we will see—I am still thinking I 
am going to stay in South Australia—our lambs here will be on a level with 
the best fat lambs frozen in any part of the world. I do not think anything 
can be sweeter or firmer or better. I know there is afarmer in this meeting 
who has been many years amongst sheep in Great Britain, and.he reckons that 
our fat lambs are nicer and plumper than anything he ever had the opportunity 
of putting his hands on. J do not see why it should not be so. Lambs else- 
where are forced on artificial food stuffs. They are fed on fodder crops, the 
flavour of which would very soon be noticed in butter if cows were fed on them, 
and to a certain degree you get it in mutton. I have tasted beef that fattened 
on white mustard, and the mustard was in the beef. 
Mr. H. A. Gires (Mount Pleasant) : Saltbush, too. 
Professor Lowrie: Is that so? We have our natural vegetation, which 
is sweet, but if we will only feed our land as we ought to do we will get our 
lambs as fat and’nice as it is possible for them to be; but if you send them 
down here and rush them through yards, and give them a kick as they go 
through, as men very often do, and lift them by the wool and throw them 
about, then South Australian lambs will never take first place in the home 
market. Lambs have to be handled as gently as if you were handling eggs or 
ripe peaches. However slight the bruise, only be the very faintest blood-burn, 
and though the manager of the produce depét, or the Minister, who takes such 
a deep interest in it—a manager could not take more—although it may pass 
their eye, they think it is not much, when it goes out of the chamber it is a big 
black bluish blur. Let us think of that blot, let us handle these lambs as they 
should be handled, and let the proper stock be kept. 
A Memser: Shropshire rams. 
