The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-30


each. Each flock has pasture tract about
six miles square allotted to it. This Is just
the size of many Of our American town
ships, and if you will imagine township
as one field you will have an idea of the
ordinary TERRA del Fucgo pasture. This.
to many of our farmers, would seem a
large amount Of land for this number of
sheep, but the grass here is short, and in
TERRA del Fuego from two to three acres
of pasture are required for each sheep. Ev-
cry flock has its own shepherd, who watches
the sheep on horseback. He has a number
of dogs, which he so trains that they will
obey his signs. Most of the dogs are Scotch
colies. which are very intelligent, and
which understand their masters almost as
we'll as though they could understand lam
guage. When the shepherd makes mo-
ton to the front they know that they are
to go ahead, motion to the rear calls them
back and the raising of his hand in the
air brings them to g. standstill. Other no
tions send them to the right and left, and,
in fact, they act for him almost as well as
If they were human beings. The shepherds
are usually Scotchmen, who come here on
five-year contracts, at from SIS TO $35 gold
a month, with the understanding that they
are to have meat. fuel and houses free.
The meat is mutton, the fuel they cut them
Selves, and their houses are little two or
three-room shanties scattered over the
farm They do not have very hard work for
most of the year. They have to feed the
sheep. This is not hard, for all the feeding
that the sheep get is from the pasture, for
the grass is always green on the Magellans,
and the sheep can Craze in TERRA del Fuego
all the year around
SHEARING SHEEP.
They have little harder work at shear
ing time, but here much of the work is
done by professional shearers and the shep-
herds only assist. The shearing time begins
in January, and on big sheep station it
lasts for two months. The sheep are not
washed before shearing. The wool is
cleaned after it reaches the European mar
ket. The price paid the shearers is $3.50
per hundred sheep, at which rate a good
man can make big wages.
Within the past year or so some focks
in TERRA del F'uego have been sheared by
steam. A set Of knives or clippers. like
those used by our BARRIERS for clipping the
hair short, is attached to cord running
on an overhead pulley and a man moves
these clippers over the skinN of the sheep,
clipping off the wool. This is said to make
a cleaner and closer job and does not cut
the skin. After shearing the fieeces are
carefully spread out, being laid one on top
of the other, and so packed in bales of 500
pounds each. The most of the wool goes
to the English markets. where it brings
from to 20 cents a pound. All of these
large stations have their managers, over
seers and bookkeepers.
Nearly every one has store where its
men can get their supplies, and every sue
cessful sheep station must be managed
after the best business methods. Sheep
raising is by no means all profit. 1t takes
money to make money here as well as else
where. 1 heard of one farmer who paid
$4,000 for dip last year. dip is the
term used for the fluid in which the sheep
are washed several times a year to free
them from the scabs The scab is a para
site which spreads so rapidly that it will
infect a thousand sheep within a few days.
And with all this does sheep farming
pay? Yes, if you can get the land and
the sheep. But the land about here and in
TERRA del Fuego is all taken up, though
am told that there is some to be bought il
Argentine Patagonia Much of the Chilean
lands are held under lease from the gov
eminent, but nearly all is in large tracts,
which is necessary on account of the thin
ness of the pasture Sheep here are worth
on the average about $3.50 gold a head.
1t is estimated that the ewes will produce
an increase of about as per cent. of the
flock year, and taking the wool and the
increase into consideration every sheep in
the flock should net the proprietor about
dollar year. The number Of employees
needed is comparatively small, and this is
being considerably reduced by fencing the
pasture fields with WIRE At present it
takes a large capital to go into sheep
raising in this part of the world, and con-
sidering everything 1 should say that the
chances for the ordinary American farmer
or small investor would be hardly worthy
Of consideration.
FRANK G. CARPENTER.