MERINOS BEING DISPLACED.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1505, 30 July 1912, Page 8

MERINOS BEING DISPLACED.

CIIOSSBREDS FOR THE EXPORT TRADE. _ The prosperous state of the meat export industry more especially as regards lambs has, says "Dalgety's Review/ encouraged - the breeding of crossbred sheep, which r- in tho southern-half of Australia are rapidly displacing the merino, which is being .driven further back, from the sea■board'each year. This fact makes-it very certain that just as soon as a run of bad seasons is experienced-in Australia there will bo a great scarcity of. merino wool. In other countries, such,as the Argentine and ~Ne\v Zealand, the merino sheep has almost disappeared, and it is sincerely i to be, hoped that our old-established stud's will never be disbanded. ' The cry of the man in the strtrats for the' compulsory subdivision of all the estates (continues our contemporary) is absurd. Any landwhich is suitable for wheat-irrowing will go under cultivation when we have* sufficient population, but there is 'much of the country which gives a tetter net return per acre by producing the best wool in the world. Furthermore, it would be a national calamity if till the merino studs disappeared. They are an absolute necessily to the sJvep and wool industry, and therefore to Australia,' for when fine wool becomes so scarce that it will-be worth .big money, the farmers and graziers will want to breed towards the merino, and there will be all too few fiue-woolled sheep available for the purpose. Australia has enjoyed a run of good Masons, and on the law of averages a cycle of dry years is tint. If they como, merino wool will be in exceedingly short supply, a fact which we wish to impress upon our. flockmasters and the trade generally.