242 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Oocr., 1902. 
LAMBS FOR THE LONDON MARKET. 
When, in the course of. time, and with the advent of good seasons, the 
farmers will generally take to rearing sheep on the farms, and grazing farmers 
begin to rear lambs for export, they will do well to remember what the London 
experts have to say about the points necessary to be observed in shipping lambs 
for the London market. The Pastoralists’ Review writes on this subject :— 
By the steamer ‘Maori King,” which left Sydney during last year, there 
was shipped to London, through Messrs. Birt and Co., under the direction of the 
New South Wales Minister for Mines and Agriculture, a parcel of 125 lambs 
and sixteen tegs from the Bathurst Experimental Farm. 
The lambs were from four and a-half to five and a-half months old, and the 
tegs from seven and a-half to eight and a-half months, and were composed of first 
and second crosses. The first crosses were by Shropshire, Southdown, Border 
Leicester, Lincoln, Romney Marsh, Dorset Horn, and Cheviot ewes. 
The object of the shipment was to get expert opinion and advice as to the: 
points necessary to be observed in shipping lambs to the London market. 
The following are the more important points with respect to which 
directions are given and insisted upon by the experts :— 
1. If top prices are to be obtained, the lambs must be milk lambs. 
2. It is absolutely necessary for the London market that they be full of 
condition, well covered, and prime fat when frozen. 
3. They should be closely graded, and even, as a lot, in quality and weight. 
4, The minimum weight is fixed as low as 26 lb., but only if the lamb is. 
thoroughly well covered and of prime quality. 
5. The maximum weight is fixed at 42 lb., over that weight being classed 
as a “tee” at a reduction of 3d. to 3d. per lb. 
With regard to the shipment of first crosses, the decision of the experts is 
that the “get” of the Southdown ram and Merino ewe, and Leicester ram and 
Merino ewe, are the best. 
With reference to the second cross lambs, the experts specially advocate 
this cross, and, taking the ewes as a criterion, class all those in the consignment 
as prime quality, with the exception of the Lincoln and Dorset Horn, which 
they term fair. As regards the order in which the second cross stand, the 
experts put those by the Southdown ram-English Leicester ewe as first, English 
Peiesiey ram-Cheviot ewe second, and Shropshire ram-Border Leicester ewe 
ourth. 
Another important question asked of the experts was, whether lambs. 
which have missed being ready as “milk” lambs should be fully fattened and 
sold as “tegs” from seven to twelve months old, and they strongly recommend 
that this course should be adopted. They advise making them prime, and 
sending them as “ tegs’’ from 42 lb. to 50 lb., the difference in price in favour 
of “tegs”’ of this weight and prime full-weight sheep would be from 4d. to 3d. 
per lb. 
PLOUGHING SEVENTY YEARS AGO. 
Probably no colonist of Queensland hailing from the old country can_ 
recollect the “Breast plough,” which we here reproduce from an English 
exchange, the Mark Lane Express. The new generation of ploughmen in this- 
State will doubtless wonder that men could be found with the stamina, the 
physique, and the indifference to slavish labour, which enabled them to toil with. 
suchanimplementduringa whole ploughing season. The journalin question says:— 
“The picture we show here represents the manner of using a very primitive 
implement. The ‘ breast plough,’ as it is called on the Cotswolds, resembles an 
immense shovel with a share turned up on one edge, and is worked in three 
successive movements: First, a thrust in from the breast; next, the cross-bat- 
