Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-06-22
Australia is the Land of the Golden
Fleece.
VAST ESTABLISHMENTS OF SOU ALTERS
Interesting Details Of Life at the
Stations.
THE TER RIBLE II ALB BIT


Copyright. 1901 by Frank G. CarpcnterJ
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star
SYDNEY, New South Wales.
The sheep farms Of Australia
The world has never seen anything like
IN. m There Were big fioCks in the days
Of tile pItriarchs- when Abraham and Lot
had u separate to GET new grazing grounds.
Ii is written THAT King solomon sacrificed
100000 sheep when he dedicated the temple,
and We know that Mesha. King Of Moab.
rly- J.agram. King OF Israel. 1Dr,uup lambs
as tribute, The pastoral msEra:es of those
days must have had large farms. hut there
.~- ftrms here III Australia as big as all
Palestine. There are sheep stations one
HsuIrrI miles long. James Mills has a
ft~m rs big as the state Of Rhode Island.
fuJ Samuel McCdUEHsy has 1.a14.ooo acres
iu .l- block James Tyson. the famous
stock King. who died q few years ago,
worth S-u.ur.uru. owned 3C0uUo1 acres and
there ara many others whose holdings run
high into the hundreds of thousands Ct
acres.
Thousands of Miles of Wire Fences.
The sheep farms Of the past were merely
Wild lands where the focks. watched by
Shepherds. We're grazed on the hills and
valleys. This is the character of a large
part of our grazing lands in the west These
big stations Of Australia are actual farms.
Thu. land is divided up into great fields
llIdrckS fenced with smooth wire. except
along the roads, where barbed wire is used.
Tn. average paddock contains 500 acres.
but there are many which are larger Some
contain several thousand acres. and single
paddockS have from 1000 To 2uuUo sheep.
Colonel Bcl. our American consul. tells me
uf one station he visited which had wire
fencing enough to wall one side Of a road
from New York to San Francisco. enough
roads to make a highway from New York
II R7ltimore and enough people to form
Eoptl-SiZTi town. ] have Travelled through
other stations which are larger. and am
amazed at the vast extent Of the fencing
and the enormous cost Of running the
Fortunes Invested.
AT present in this state of New South
Wales irtH1.'-u out IF the II .Uft.uDo sheep
which are here owned are kept in fenced
rtGducks. There are thousands of miles of
wiz netting put up as fences 20 keep OUT
the rabbits. There are millions of dollars
invested il buildings, and the salary list
of a great station IL as long as that of
department store Sheep raising is by no
means a cheap business. and 10 make 1t
pay everything must be carefully man
aGrG.
The average sheep farm costs from $1,000
L. <lt.prp q year TO run it. and there are
some in which the expenses run into the
hurdr. DIS Of thousands of dollars a year.
OF late wages have steadily increased.
until the men are now paid about 81 a
week with board. Every receives
weekly about twelve pounds of meat. ten
pounds of flour and a quarter of a pound
Of tea as we'll as other things so that
every station must keep a large store and
warehouse. Even the smaller stations have
q dozen or more men IN ordinary times.
and at sheariug times the hands are num-
bered by scores
The land in the better parts of Australia
IS valuable and even where il is rented Of
the government 1t runs rapidly into money.
The leases are different in the different
states. the price IN Queensland being
from 81 to IS per square mile per annum.
| know Of one man who has 30 600 acres
In Queensland for which he pays only half
cent per acre per year. but even at this
rate it foots up 81. 200. and there are farms
which pay rents Of tens of thousands of
dollars.
Live Like Lords.
Some of the big squatters live like lords
They have low one-story houses rooted
with galvanized iron. Their homes have
score or more rooms with wide We
rardas running around the outside. They
have many servants and their surroundings
are more like those of a feudal baron than