The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-10-19
BooMASooMANA,
New South WALES.

August l6, 1888.
Dear Sir have been so busy since my
return to Australia that missed writing to
You by last mail, l have very bad news
to give You with regard to our sheep i'm
ported from America. l brought them
through all The perils Of sea and land. dis
tance of 11,l00 miles, to Sydney, without
the loss of one sheep and two days after
getting to Sydney they were sent to do theii
ninety days in quarantine. But the first
dipping they had TO undergo was disastrous.
from the mixture being made too strong by
the man whom the government have in
charge of it. The consequence was st.
Julien, Clngstone and Barten were killed
by the strength of the specific, and we also
lost the only too rams we got from Rich.
| by this misfortune we have lost what we
considered our best ram--Clngstone The
four rams we got from Barton are all right
and also Dan. another got from him just
before l left. Two rams we got from
Cosstt are also saved. Only one eve was
killed, and she was one of Barton's. The
whole are now doing well and getting fat.
| All the sheep we got from you stood the
journey well. None of the yearlings, rams
or ewes, appeared to travel 50 well as older
sheep. l doctored several of Barton's
young rams with whisky for about week,
and it appeared to do them good. Two
rams died out of the lot that went to Nc
| Farland Bros. We had very fine passage
and no hot weather at the equator; and the
captain and officers of the City of New
York did everything in their power for me
to bring the sheep safely to their destina-
ton
There have been very extensive sales Of
Tasmanian and Victorian stud sheep at
Sydney. and | am sending you the AUStr0L-
ian, in order that you may see results and
he posted up in our proceedings. There
are nearly every week letters on American
| MerinOs, some of which you will notice.
| AIrtOrItnS !. az n
American sheep, and are considerably dis
gusted that they are admitted into New
South Wales. The ArgNS is the leading pa
| per- and II has made some milk-and- water
arguments against the American sheep be-
ing allowed to come in for fear of introduce
ing diseases. There is such a demand for
sheep cutting heavy fleeces now that the
| Victorian stud sheep breeders are shaking
the buttons off their clothes with fear lest
| their rams. cutting weights such rs ten and
twelve pounds. become unsaeable. except at
greatly reduced rates. For years past we
have bought Currie's rams. pure Merinos,
and we never got ten pounds of wool from
one OF them. Some years ago we purchased
Two rams of thus blood. One cost us over
800 and the other over $3.50, and neither
cut thirteen pounds of wool In one of the
| Australian newspapers sent Won Won might
notice under the heading "Rural Topics
and Events" reference to Il letter of a
correspondent, " Enterprise" which con-
tains several nlsstatements, one OF which
Is that the person who came Overin charge
OF the American sheep purchased largely
| OF stud sheep to take back to California" d."
Now | know that the other man did not
take any sheep back. and | am here still
Y Iou will also see that it is asserted that
American Merlnos would damage the
brightness of the best Victorian stud hocks
This shows ignorance of the subject they
are writing on. James Winter bought of
the Grimes importation in 1866 and he was
II larger buyer of sheep than any of us in
thu States and he told me himself that he
one year cut twelve pounds of wool per
head from 1000 ewes l do not think there
is another flock in Victoria that has ever
done the same. | saw his last account
sales, and for money return per head for
wool, | do not think he can be beaten.
have some samples of your wool which l
shall send to town TO show that good bright
wool is grown in America.
L am sending you some samples of wool
from our stud ewes and sample from a
yearling eve bred from our own stud flock
by New York. The weight of her fleece is
fully two and half pounds heavier than
any ewes fleece L have had before from
one of same age. You will see that the
color is not good, rs the sire was II dingy
wooled sheep; but after seeing acclimatized
Vermont Merinos in California with wool
rs bright as Australian sheep, | am not
likely to be afraid on this score.
l commence my strengthening in a
fortnight and expect to clip 5000 in all at
ut this place. lS.20I of which are lambs
l am yours faithfully,
ALFRED HAY.