LIFE ON TIERRA DEL FUEGO

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22371, 7 April 1938, Page 10

LIFE ON TIERRA DEL FUEGO

Sheepfarming On A

Big Scale

AN ESTATE OF 420,000 ACRES

(VBICSS ASSOCIATION TELEGBAX.)

WELLINGTON, April 6. In Tierra del Fuego, a bleak island that lies between the Strait of Magellan and Cape Horn, the southern-most extremity of South America, sheep are farmed on a large scale. The manager of an estate of 420,000 acres, carrying 152,000 sheep, Mr \ R . L ° W ’ f ° erly of Christchurch, but now of Tierra del Fuego, gave a brief sketch of conditions there in an mteirview on his arrival at Wellington by the Ruahine to-day. „His is one of the world’s southern-most sheep stations, situated well below latitude 50 degrees south. ■ _ The country, said Mr Lo-w, was rolling tussock hills, similar to the foothills of Canterbury; but without the shingle of New Zealand hills. The rainfall was not exceptional, they depended on snow for water. Temperatures were bitterly cold in the winter. Communications were poor. The island was cut off from general contact 'with the outside world, except by steamer once in two or three months; but there was now a weekly air mail service from B.uenos Aires. Everybody relied on wireless for news, and as reception conditions in those IbU" tudes were excellent, they' could even pick up Australia. The roads were mediocre, and although motorcar travel was the rule, the horse, and even the bullock waggon, played an important part in transport in that part of the world. Peons Carry Knives ■ The inhabitants were for the most part Spanish-American peons, who were indifferent workers, and required a good deal of supervision. They all went about armed with long knives, and English and American ranchers carried guns, particularly when in the lonely interior. The Tierra del Fuegan Indians had practically disappeared, except for a few at the missions. They had no longer any tribal life or settlements of their own. The biggest shearing shed in the world was in Tierra del Fuego. It belonged to a company which owned the ranch managed by Mr Low,.as well as another carrying about 120,000 sheep. Yet this company was not tljp biggest graziers’ organisation on the island. The shed referred to would hold 6000 woolly sheep in its pens at one time. Forty machine-shearers were ranged along the board when shearing was at its height. They had cut out as many as 7200 sheep in a day. The station clip was 1500 bales a year. The company ran its own freezing works, and put out about 25,000 carcases a year, mostly lambs. The output was limited by quota, and any surplus was handled by other freezing works on the mainland. Old ewes were also shipped to the mainland to be rendered down for tallow, this, and their hides, being regarded as their sole products of value. The pasture was entirely of native grasses. The sheep lived seasonally on the tusscck, and on the fine spring and summer growth of the natural pasture. The tussock was not burned to encourage spring growth as in New Zealand. Mr Low, who originally came from Christchurch, said he had been in South America two years and a half. He had come 'over on leave, joining the Ruahine at Balboa.