Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1898-07-24
AUSTRALIAN SHEEP YARDS.
Work That Is Like wnr, as 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 fish 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 baek-where it 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 shearers 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, 50 much so that, when the merry band has tallied out the contracts with the "cornstall1, 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 sul- 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 collo- quialism. The wool washing crew is another band of experts who hump the billy" from shed to shed. They SCOUT the wool and attend to drying and packing In New Zealand tieeces 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 75 feeces, though this is no hard-and-fast rule. An approximate value is s 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 a will till they drop on the burning sand, exhausted by the scanty food, the shortness of water, the pitiiess sun and the strain of the weight. The journey is always 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. It 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.
 The Sense of Taste.
 The tongue is divided into three re-