The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-03-31
Wv Sheep Are Frozen by the Millions in
ew Zealand for the London Markets.
$50 Imporane ofte Tunp Crop The Biggest olen Mill Below the Equat


In fact. every good chop you eat here is
| half turnips. The people tell me that tur-
nip-fed sheep produce the best mutton.
In buying a sheep farm the first question
asked IS whether the land will raise tur-
nips, and If SO the price is much higher
/ than otherwise. New Zealand has more
| than 400, 600 acres Of turnips. Turnip fields
| are to be seen on every landscape. and
| they often form a striking feature. The crop
| grows luXuriantly. and before the sheep
are let in 1t forms q bed of bright green.
Later on, when the sheep have had their
first chance at it, the green has all dis
| appeared. and in its place there is an eX-
panSe of black soil covered with white balls
set out in rows. The field looks as though
It had been plowed and sown with billiard
balls.
You see the sheep biting the balls. They
eat them out of the ground, digging away
until every root has disappeared. In some
cases the turnips are dug up by the farmer
and fed in the pasture to the sheep.
In Question of Wages.
Labor is high in New Zealand. and every
thing Is done to cut down expenses. On
the large estates the sheep are kept in
enormous fields. so that a few hands suf-
flee to care for a large flock. The shep-.
herds put in about ten hours, except at
harvest time, when they work from day
light to dark. Their wages are higher than
those of the United States. In the busiest
parts of the year they receive from IS to
% cents an hour. and in MANY cases their
employers add to this a present at the
close of the season. 1 met one man who
told me he gave each of his hands $50 when
the hardest of the work was done.
The shearing usually begins in Septem-
Der and lasts until January. 1t is done by
the piece. being performed by professional
shearers. who get from 4 to AZ cents a
sheep. There are men who can shear more
than 100 sheep in a day. and not a few make
their So per diem. The wool clips vary
greatly according to the breeds. The me-
rinos range all the way from four to seven
pounds each. while the Leicesters will aver
age ten pounds and the Lincolns about
eleven pounds. There are sheep which each
produce from twenty to thirty pounds of
wool at a clip. but these are exceptions.
A Warming to Belgian Hare Raisers.
The craze which is running over the
United States as to Belgian hares SHOULD
be stopped, for they may become as great
a pest as the rabbits are here. Rabbits
were introduced into New Zealand as pets
and with the idea that they might furnish
meat. They increased SO rapidly that they
soon overran the whole country. They ate
up the pastures. and millions of dollars
have since been spent in killing them or in
fencing them out of the sheep lands. OF
late a large industry has grown up In trap
ping them for their skins and in freezing
the carcasses for shipment to London.
There are men here who make a business
of rabbit-trapping and rabbit-buying. I
sec crates of rabbits at almost every rail- |
road station, and / am told that about |
IL .000,0N 0 pounds of frozen rabbits are
shipped from New Zealand to Lon
don. In one year 100000 rabbit skins were
and such exports now bring in
several hundred thousand dollars annually
Frozen rabbits are shipped with the fur |
on, and they are I doubt not often sold as