The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1879-10-21

Of StOck.RaisinE i'm Aus
trRlia.
[By q Special Correspondent

DEAR SIR: The most important industry
in Australia, as is getting to be in Montana, is
stock-raising, which includes sheep-ralsing
and wool-growing. Wool-growers of New
South Wales claim that they have the finest.
climate in the world for his particular
branch of industry. The land is mostly
leased from the British Government. The
lessor is called a squatter; the range, a station,
sheep or cattle station, as the case might be.
Fine wool merino sheep are best liked, not
the little black, wrinkly merino, but those
with large frames and smooth skin. The av-
eiage greasy fleece weighs from five to six
pounds. AT the present lime most of the
sheep stations in New South Wales are en-
closed by wire fences. Six or seven wires are
required fora good sheep-proof fence. Large
stations are divided aud sub-divided into pad
docks, each pasturing 5000 sheep, or there
abouts. These paddocks are looked after by
"boundary riders,' who live near the fence
every day. Their business is to keep the
fence in repair, and if any get out to follow
the tracks and bring them back. In the tim
bered country trees and limbs often fall on
the fence and break the wires, and when the
fence is first put up kangaroos run through it,
breaking the wire and sometimes their own
backs. After a while they understand the
difficulty and jump over. A boundary rider
gets about $500 per annum, a hut to live in,
~rations, consisting of eight pounds of
fO1r tHyn nr,nI, IF ,,ro md prortor nf :,
pound of tea a week, and the privilege Of kill
ing one sheep every fortnight. Nothwith-
standing its advantages, there are many draw
backs to wOok-grOwiEg in Australia. Large
tracts of country are inf sted with burrs
which get into the wool and reduce its value
nearly one-half. In many parts there is a kind
of grass seed which not only gets into the
wool but bores through the skin into the
flesh of the sheep. This Injuries the wool and
keeps the sheep poor and miserable.
The Dingo, or native dog, which resembles
the American fox, is a great pest to wool
growers. On some stations a man is employ
ed the year round, to lay poison; but many
Of the Dingos are too cunning to take a bait,
PiSASiAibS w MI liz HlulUOL.
Shearing is a regular trade in Australia,
and a good shearer can get work about six
months in the year. He starts out with two
horses one to ride and the other to Garry the
sardg about the last of June. He goes first
where the climate is hottest, shears at one
shed otter another, from two to four weeks at
a place, always working toward the colder
districts as the season advances. In this way
he will get work right up to Christmas and
sometimes up to January. December and
January are the hottest months in Australia.)
The rest of the year some go to the cities and
enjoy high life on what they have earned,
others take contracts to put up fence and do
different kinds of bush work and so make good
wages the year round. A good shearer will
average about 100 ia day of mixed sheep.
Some have been known to- shear $50 and as
high as POO in a day. But when these high
scores are made the sheep are more often
"tomahawked" than shOrn. SheaTers are
paid by the hundred. The average price is
$4.00 per hundred. They have to "fnd"
themselves out of this, and they generally
buy their provisions and hire a cook.
Wool sheds are often costly and imposing
structures. Some accommodate over forty
shearers. The enter of the floor is occupied
by the shearers. The sides are divided into
pens. Several pet sheep are kept about the
place and when a flock is brought up to the
shed these pets are put in with them and
called into the shed. The others follow and
SO the pens are filled without much trouble.
Only one or two men pick the sheep out OF
a pen and as the sheep are shorn they arc
sent out another way. One man can pick NJ
and roll feeces for sixteen or eighteen men
A wool sOrter classifies the wool which il
then pressed into bales containing from 40(
to 500 pounds. The excessive drought fol
the last three years was a great drawback fo
were DRIED up almost entirely, SO that on
had to travel sometimes fifty miles for a drinl
OF water. The grass was literally burned b,
the sun and sheep, cattle and horses perishe,
by the thousands from thirs. and starvation
From my slight observation of Montana,
think neither Australia nor California ca
compare with it in the matter OF stock rails
ing. H.G. S.
HELENA, Oct. 16, 1879.
! All the Nevada papers warn "~unemPl0ye
men" to keep way from their respectiv
our readers that the Nevada dictionary d,
z Epas tho word ssnnarnnioyad - IN mean n no