Evening journal., 1898-09-05
AUSTRALIAN SHEEP YARDS.
Work That Is Like War, ns General
sherman Once Described
the Latter.

The shearing season in the wool
countries is the most important and
the busiest of any which occur in
sheep rearing. The swagman has an
opportunity which he does not like
and usually disregards, and the Eng
lish cadet has no reasonable excuse
to remain idle. The opening of the
sheds is not simultaneous, for, as the
hot weather comes down from the
equator, those runs away back-where
1t is too hot to curse and one never
sees the kangaroo-start cutting out
some weeks before sheep walks in less
temperature but cooler regions. The
shearcrs and the musterers travel in
their own mobs, and in many cases
work the same circuit. Shearing in
Australia is earlier than in New Zea-
land, 80 much so that, when the merry
band has tailed out the contracts
with the "cornstalls," "gum-chewing"
and "banana" squatters of New South
Wales, Victoria and Queensland, it
ships to Maoriland, and, playing the
blades on the sheep of the Three Is
lands, returns in time for the early
wool clips among the God-forgotten
backs of Queensland.
Prior to the shearing is the sheep
mastering. For weeks the homestead
has been bathed in red clouds of sand,
which rise from the drafting yards
as the sheep play "silly devils" when
they are worked. The yarders, with
despair written on, their faces, know
that they are coming to the end of
their oaths and the dogs to the limits
of their endurance. Drafting on cool
days is possible and may be compassed
with but few detonations of q sui
phurous character; but on a scorcher,
when meat can be cooked on the zinc
roofs and blisters are raised by the
drinking water, yard work of any de-
scription is-hell, to accept the merest
and inadequate Australasian colo
quialism. The wool washing crew is
another band of experts who hump
the billy" from shed to shed. They
scour the wool and attend to drying
and packing. In New Zealand fleeces
are baled up without washing, but the
sands of Australia increase the weight
so much that the expenses would
swamp the returns. The bales will
hold about Is fleeces, though this is no
hard-and-fast rule. An approximate
value is C 10 and the carriage price is
all contract. The groan of the wheels,
the cracking of the whips, the creak
of the load, denote that the clip is al
most gathered, and when the journey
begins the patient bullocks work with
will till they drop on the burning
sand, exhausted by the scanty food,
the shortness of water. the pitiless sun
and the strain of the weight. The
journey is always n far one on those
back runs, but where they ship by
barges the monotony contains pleas
ant change. To load the barge and
slowly to float down the stream is an
idleness which all men appreciate.
To lie upon bale and gaze upon the
snow-topped mountain range, the
winding river, the forests on the
slopes, the undulating paddocks melt
ing into space, to listen to the bleat-
ing of the sheep. the lowing of the cat
tie, the neighing of the horses, engen-
der passion for the life, which seems
supreme. It is finer than the life of
cities. 1t lifts the idle dreamer to a
paradise of nature where, with gun
and rod, horse and dog, he can enjoy
sport, indulge tastes and love animals.
london Sketch.