ABOUT SHEEP.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXII, Issue 61, 14 March 1910, Page 2

ABOUT SHEEP.

The wealth of Hawke's Bay is due principally to the "heep, and as they minister to our comfort, so should we, in common gratitude, minister to theirs, as far as practicable.

Fats from the coast to Dannevirke are several days on the road, driven on dusty roads dur.'ng the day, and shut up at night in small holding paddocks or yards without food or water. Certainly the sheep can obtain a little—very little —grass on the roadside, but when so many hundreds crowd along at the same time, it is only the few that can get a bite now and then.

But their greatest suffering is caused by the want of water. Imagine ourselves to be on a dusty road day after day without water. "As sheep before their shearers are dumb," so they have to bear their privation in mute agony. An observant, sympathetic passer-by can notice the woebegone look on their faces, denoting the suffering they endure. When their owners go to the wool sales at Napier to sell the fleeces their sheep have grown for them, there is the refreshment car, filtered water accessible to each carriage, and sundry cups of tea, if a very thirsty day. At the same time they may pass truckloads of their sheep, which are shunted to wait while their lords roll by—that have possibly been days without any nourishment. Last Sunday X passed a mob of sheep about 6 o'clock p.m.; they had just arrived at the Mornington River, and the driver did not give one of tliem a drink! The river there is not half a chain from the main road, and there is a long stretch of shingle where sheep could straggle along and drink (and they cannot get away) if the dogs were kept off for about half an hour. There could not be a better place to exercise a little human feeling for poor driven animals, and I would suggest that the Drovers' Union and buyers of fats should instruct their drovers to let their charges have every opportunity of getting water on the road. It is more necessary than grass when they are heated, as they must be, even with the most careful

driving

I passed another mob on Monday morning of about 2500 heavy sheep from Ti Tree Point. The drover started at lialf-past 3 a.m., so that he could give them two hours' spell on the Mangatoro River bed, near .Ballantyne's. .That drover deserves to have great encouragement, and I sincerely trust he may have many another mob committed to his care.

The Dannevirke County Council, I understand, are going to put a trough by the roadside where there is a perennial spring close to Mr F. Cunninghame's gate. Mr Paton informs mte that the railway authorities have placed water troughs in the trucking yards at Mangatera, but the sheep are many days on the road before they reach there. F. W, WHIBLEY, Vicarage, Weber.