Pastoral Australia

Bruce Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 109, 3 February 1903, Page 3

Pastoral Australia

THE BREAK-UP OF THE DROUGHT. We clip the following items from ' The Bulletin ':— The recent precious downpour has spread much joy along its course over the parched and hungry western lands. Towns like Cobar, Nymagee, and White Cliffs whence the breadwinner had long since gone south in search of a crust for wife and kids, are now rejoicing at the homecoming of Dad. After the late rains, upwards of 200 wires passed through Cobar office bidding the wanderers' return, and the following night saw arrive a duplicated train full of toilers— the like of which had been unfamiliar to the Cobar residents for years. A slight fresh in the Ualonne, t'other night, trickled down past St. George (Queensland) and sent the residents frantic with excitement They hadn't seen running water for t%vo years, and ran out with lanterns, bottled candles, and slush lamps tv gaze on the novelty, and to compare the feel and the gurgle of it with waters they had known in the long ago. From White Cliffs (New South Wales): Our troubles so far as water is concerned are at an end, 158 points of rain having filled all our tanks, liread has again given out, but flower laden camel trains are only twenty miles away. On Friday after the rain, our chief trader took a brood of ducks, fifteen months old, out of the yard in which they had been reared, and drove them to his tank, now full. They positively refused to enter it, so one was caught and thrown in. It scrambled out in fear and scooted up the bank and with its companions, has since refused to take to the water at any price. They had never seen more than a dishful for drinking purposes. An object lesson in irrigation : N. A. Gatenby, owner of Jemalong Station, on the Lachlan, twenty miles below Forbes (New South Wales), is now well through an interesting test, under the eye of a practical man, nominated by the N.S.W. Government, Jemalong is, among western squattages, about the most striking object lesson in irrigation ; and Mr Gatenby seized thepresent droughty time to show more widely, under test conditions, what his hobby can do. His undertaking was to fatten 1650 sheep on 22 acres of irrigated lucerne, keeping them for four months. A patch sft x 3ft is cut per sheep daily ; this allows a month betwsen cuttings. After proinff for three months there is

such a stack of lucerne hay on hand that it is probable the number of sheep per acre might have been fixed at from 90 to 100, instead of at 75. For an ordinary hay crop Mr Gatenby gives two waterings; and this year he reckons that the 5s per acre which this cost has given him a. return over £10. Mr Gatenby was prepared to wager that he could keep 15,000 sheep on 200 acres daring the whole summer. " Cecil Poole " : A man up Gunnedah way told me that a neighbor had ceased to believe in God because he could not think that, if He existed, He would inflict such agonies on His dumb creatures. " But " said my informant to him, " God didn't put the stock there — we did, The Almighty put kangaroos, Wallabies, &c, on the land and they could find a living." Good common sense ! The man who overstocks only practises, on a vastly greater scale, the cruelty that lashes an exhausted horse. Head lately that the Sahara now carries nine millions of sheep -presumably in natural and artificial oases. The French are making the desert fertile; we are doing the reverse. Shouldn't be surprised if the , New South Wales desert should shortly import wool and mutton from its North African rivar. It certainly will, if we don't cease asking God or the Government for what we can get ourselves. " Prooshan " re sheep mortality: At Wagga railway gates, recently, were lying dead 123 sheep out of a comparatively small lot. A policeman told the drover that he'd give him two hours to shift the carcases, and the man had to pay 3d a head and give the pelts in to get them removed. Another man gave £5 and pelts to get 500 throats cut near Wagga, I saw 2000 bone-bags pass Courabyra recently. Drover said: " 1 paid £10 for six acres for a night at Gumly £8 for eight acres at Borambola, and £10 for same at Tarcutta. I struck first grass at Nack's near Adelong; then 'scouring' settled 49 the first night, and 54 next day, and they're dropping in dozens now. Wonder if I'll be able to deliver any of 'em!" Up North the frogs are leaving the water-holes for higher ground, and the Castlereagh Kiver blacks predict floodrains. The nigs, point out (1) that frogs' lives often depend on rain, and they ought to know something about it; (2) that frogs never reside in running streams, which wash them along involuntarily, sometimes even to the Murray, where codfish have their abode; (3) that frogs have a rooted objection to being eaten by Murray cod, and so their present exodus;