THE INCREASE OF STOCK.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 11, Issue 846, 1 June 1867, Page 3

THE INCREASE OF STOCK.

~:-: ( : '.' (From the 'Australasian,' Hay 11.) ;= In another column i will be found a letter C from a correspondent who has taken the ,1; trouble to collect from different sources re- ;'; > turha showing the numbers of cattle and • sbeep in the six Australian colonies in 1865, and. these should receive close attention ..from the stock-owners. To the general public the, figures will convey the idea of legs of mutton soon again at 6d ; but the prospect of having to boil down a large proportion"qf ""their fat stock will not be so ■pleasant %to those of the settlers who have still rather;" large sums to. wipe off; from the wrong side of the agent's books. The increase of stock has now got on well ahead of the increase of population again, and there is not the least probability of any such influx of people as to effect a change once more in this order of things. Only for the abundance of feed we i should have had ere this our markets glutted with lean and'halffat stock, of little or no money value, for they would have been unsaleable. Fortunately for those whose runs are fully stocked, they were able to keep many more sheep than they did last summer, and so to avoid a crisis at the cattle markets ; but the evil is only postponed for a time, as such a summer for feed may fiofe be experienced again for many years. And the actual state of things is not to be learned from the salesmen's reports. These would make it appear that the markets are only slightly overstocked occasionally, and that the prices are wonderfully well supported ; but the truth can , be learned by anyoqe either wanting to purchase or having the appearance of a purchaser. , On inquiry from theagents he will find that the half-fat sheep, such as could have been sold readily to the butchers this time twelvemonth at full prices, are to be purchased as stores, and at exceedingly low prices too, while, as our correspondent points out, the number of store and breeding sheep advertised for sale ought to be alarming. If the summer had been dry, what would have become of this million and upwards of sheep which nobody wants ? Tteir throats would have had to be cut, to save jbhe Hfes.of more valuable sheep on the ' ~runa, ; or many of them : ; would have been starved to death. A certain number of -/ vwedders will always be wanted for fattening >! by those who, lay themselves out for supplying the markets j but it is plain that we are getting too many ewes in Victoria, especially M'tfierc is no outlet for these. The feeding: capabilities of the country will, no doubt, - increase ; but very slowly, and we are on the eve of another lambing. The state of the case is, then, that we have now, allowing for those that will be sold as the season ad- '■■: Vances, a million of sheep for sale which nojbofty will buy, and therefore superfluous. '■; The lambs about to be dropped will amount to a coupleof millions, and these will force another million or so of older sheep on the market in a few months, so it is quite time to think how these millions which cannot . be kept and cannot be sold are to be disposed of. x. About the cattle we need not trouble our- . selves, for these have beensteadily decreasing in numbers in Victoria for pome years past ; but; the sheep amounted in 1865 or 1866, for the statistics are made up in such , a careless manner that we can never be certain of a year, to 8,835,380, and these " ought, at the .usual rate of increase, to double their number in five or six years. When the total number was smaller, consumption kept down the increase much more than it •will now that the sheep have come to bear a so much greater proportion to consumers, so that if it before took ten years to double the number of sheep, five years ought to suffice for that now. But the feeding capabilities of the country cannot be improved within that time so as to enable it to carry, in addition to the present number, a fourth of the increase, so that doubling • the eight or nine millions is out of the question. The stock in New South Wales and Queensland may be doubled, and that would appear to promise a greater competition in . our markets for the sale of fat stock ; but this cannot be with prices below what they are now. For instance, we find an advocate for boiling .down in Riverina stating that good wedders with six month's wool upon them only fetched 7s. 6d. a head in the Melbourne market. The expense of driving, commission, &c, amounted to 2s. 6d;, and each fleece was worth 35., so , that only 28. was left for the carcass ; while, if boiled down, the tallow would have been worth ss. a head, and the greater part of the expense of driving to market would have been saved. Thus, even at present prices, it would pay better to boil down fat sheep than to send theai from a distance, for owners know to their cost that very few obtain the prices quoted. And if these come down but s a little more, owners at a distance will cease to look to this jmarket at all. Therefore, as stated before, boiling-down prices once reached, and the fat sheep brought into •competition against those reared and fattened in Victoria will come from no great distance over the border, however the flocks in New South Wales and Queensland may increase. All those at and beyond a certain distance from market must be boiled down, but we shall still have many more than we can eat, so notwithstanding this there must soon be boiling down in different parjis of Victoria to relieve our markets too. • And in the present state of affairs the sooner preparation is made for this the better. The agents will have soon to acknowledge their inability to sell more than a very small proportion of the stock placed in their hands, and something must be done with the surplus sheep before there is any risk of grass becoming scarce again. Owners have only to look into this question for themselves to be convinced that there is absolutely no market for the store and breeding sjieep they have to sell ; and if they procrastinate, hoping for a change, they will be in a far worse condition next year, with the <s:oep poor, carrying neither fat nor wool, instead of/ being fat or half-fat as they are now. . Boiling down will establish a minimum available at all times — no slight advantage in itself,, as. those sheep-farming twenty years ago very well remember, and breeders ■will thus be able to dispose of all their old and objectionable sheep, and make up in quality for what they want in quantity. We get credit now in the returns for a very great weight of wool in proportion to the, number of our sheep, but this is because . jeryi much of the wool grown on Riverina ;. sheep in i New Sduth' Wales i 8 shipped here. > Qur'fl^ces niay be heavier and more valua--o^^^lo^^^:^'kxi^'^^^^^QVii. in the ■^^^^^c|3lpnY, but they are not worth

J more than twice as much, as would appear |by the returns. In this respect there is a close approximation between South Australia and Tasmania, and if we .take the mean between the prices given for New South Wales and this colony, it will still appear that we get the very good price of upwards of ss. a fleece. But we may fairly claim a higher average than the sister colony, although we cannot ascertain exactly what that should be, and this will be increased rapidly as soon as we begin to boil down all the old and light-fleeced sheep. This last resource of those with a superabundance of mutton has been' looked on as an evil to be avoided as long as'possible, but we must now prepare to meet it, and though such a destruction of good meat is to be lamented, the boiling-pot has its advantages, and great ones too.