Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-24
cAMELs IN

- e t
-c,rt, Made to Raise q Home-Bred Stock.
In many parts of Australia r large
.,.cts of arid country-deserts, we
,,icht callthem-over which, especially
H. times of drought, it is difficult, if
NOT impossible, for any but the abor-
;oines to travel without the assistance
II camels as carriers. Owing to the
GREAT increase of population at the
%antjpodes, it has become a matter of
some Importance to have all possible
facilities for opening out new districts;
snd in South Australia attempts not
altogether unsuccessful have been made
10 raise q home-bred stock of camels.
Ar the present time there are some two
thousand or more of those useful ami
mails in that part of Australia alone.
These are greatly in demand, and reg
ular market prices are quoted for them,
the value of a good pack bull being
sixty pounds, and a pack COW sixty-ive
nounds. Camels for harness are even
more valuable, selling from sixty-fve
to seventy pounds. according to sex,
whilst those used for riding purposes
fetch from seventy to seventy-fve
pounds.
Camcls were not imported into
South Australia in any number until
1866, when Sir Thomas Elder entered
Into the enterprise with a determine
kion to establish a herd, and succeeded
lin landing n hundred and nine,
which shortly increased to a hundred
and twenty-five. Soon, however, the
little herd was attacked by a kind of
mango; and the camels suffered so
much from this disease that at the end
Eoi six months their number was re-
duced to sixty-two. In time, however,
.by the most careful treatment, the dis
ease was stamped out; the herd then
tllrovc we'll, and has now largely in
creased.
1t was not until about 1888 that the
settlers generally began to see the
GREAT value of camels in certain dis
tricts. and then the demand far ex-
cecded the supply. In that year,
Messrs. w. r. Cave & Co.. made a trial
Shipment Of six, and this venture
proved so successful that in 1884 six
hundred and sixty-one camels were
imported. In India great losses have
been sustained from foot-and-mouth
disease and tuberculosis; it has been
therefore deemed necessary, as a pro-
section to what has now
become a very important in.
terest in South Australia, that all
imported camels should be subjected
10 a rigorous veterinary examination;
and regulations to that effect were pub.
lishcd in the Australian Gazette in
December last. Those camels which
nave become acolimatized or the home.
bred are particularly healthy; but the
imported ones. as a rule, suffer greatly
at first from skin disease of a highly
infectious order (scabies), and, many
have died from this cause. The rem
edies for the disease are ointments O
sulphur and carbolic acid; tar and fat
and, indeed, any of the usual sheer
dressings of which sulphur is an in.
gredient.
For purposes of exploring, surveying
and carrying stores, camels have
proved invaluable aids; and in the in.
Nilol VI AusIidlld tuey aEe uIIuIy eSCdD'
lished as most valuable stock, and are
turned to many and varied uses. In
that country there must always be
large tracts of land over which it will
be difficult to travel; and there car
thus be no doubt that the enterprise Of
the importers and breeders of camels
will be rewarded. Should we, some
years hence, have the misfortune to be
engaged in another Egyptian cam
paign. we may perhaps be able to pro
curt that absolute essential of deser,
warfare, a stock of camels, from ou7
colonial friends Chambers Journal