Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-22

ter and taking it off more smoothly and
cieanly than by hand. l have seen sheen
9hofh IN TINS way so that their skins were
as smooth as the nap of fine cloth tho
SE'ep running away clad in a velyety coat
or soft white. The managers tell me that
the machines save from a quarter TO q half
pound OF wool per sheep, and that there is
less danger of clipping the skin than in
hand shearing. The time of shearine, is
about the same as by hand the average
number shorn being a little more than 100
per per gay. some men can shear more than
lh' per day by hand. The record of the
best shearer is that of Jack Howe who
has cut the wool from 32l sheep in one day
with pair of ordinary hand shears
Hew Wool is Shipped.
Alter the wool is shorn it Is sorted and
packed. The different parts are put in diff
ferent bundles which are sewed UP in bags
ana are then ready for shipment to the
markets. On some stations the wool is
baled in packages of 3sn pounds
Many of the stations are miles from the
railroads. and in such cases the wool
has to be carried there on carts drawn by
oxen. Some carts will carry ten tons a
yoke of eight or ten oxen being used to
draw them. The ordinary freight charge is
- cents per ton per mile. which is quite in
contrast with the freightS from the Aus
ira Ian ports to Europe. where a ton is
carried 1l,oD miles more for So The
freights are even higher than this in GER
tain pdIlS Dl southern ana western AUS
tralia. where camels are used to bring out
the wool. The camels brought from
Arabia and India and some of them are
excellent. l am told that single camel
will carry two bales of wool and that thew
are used for all sorts of freighting.
The Terrible Rabbit.
The squatter never has the nightmare. If
| he is drunk has eaten too much he is IL
| able to have the rabbit-mare. II he gets
the dalirinm he r,b
| than snakes and rabbits are, in fact the
| terror of every one. They are found by the
| tens of millions all over the country, and
| If not destroyed they eat all the grass and
| the sheep must starve. Hundreds of sta
! tions have been ruined by them, and every
| station has its men who do nothing else
| but hunt and trap rabbits, some single
men averaging much as 400 killed rab-
| bits per day.
Australia has already invested millions
| OF dollars in rabbit-proof wire fences
Large rewards have been offered for some
| thing which will destroy the rabbits and
| rid the country Of them, as, for instance
the case Of New South Wales, where the
| government once promised to give 1925 900
| to any one who would suggest or invent
anything that would bring about that result.
AT present the people are spending as much
as 3d. 600 year TO keep down the rab-
! bits. and still they breed and breed and
never stop breeding.
From careful estimates it is found that
pair of Australian rabbits will produce
six filters year, and that each litter will
average five rabbits. AS soon as the little
Dummies are six months old they begin to
breed. and the result is that one pair in
hye years will increase to 10OO0,OOO pairs
The first man who brought rabbits to
Australia was squatter He lived in the
country near Melbourne and he wanted
something to remind him Of home. The
rabbits grew In number SO rapidly that 1
am tod they eventually cost him more
than 100000 in loss of stock and that ba
Is TO-DAY at great expense to keep his sta
ton rabbit-proof.
Thousands of Miles of Wire Fenci,.
There Is now a wire netting fence a46
miles long between New South Wales and
South Australia. which was put up by the
New South Wales government; there is an
| other fence Of 81 miles along the Queens
land border. and in the southern end of
the colony there is fence 612 miles long
while a similar fence has been erected hv
the Queensland and New South Wales gov
ernments ll5 miles in lenth, making alto
gether more than LOO miles of rabbit
proof fencing put up by the governments
| At present there are about Is, 600 miles Of
| rabbit fences in New South Wales alone
ana hundreds Of miles are in course Of
erection There are thousands Of miles
| IN the other colonies, and 1T is probable
will be fenced.
Is about four feet wide with meshes NOT
| more than one and one-hah inches in di
ameter The average fencing costs about
900 per mile, so that the total expense is
| enormous. 40
Within the last few years some rahh,.s
! have been exported in a frozen shane to
| London. but such expectations will never
| equal the losses which the animals have
| entalled upon the squatter
FRANK G. CARPENTER
/