MUTTON" OR WOOL?

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11132, 26 January 1899, Page 2

MUTTON" OR WOOL?

Some ancient sage once remarked that there are two sides to every question. And it seems this applies to sheepbreeding in New Zealand. Our Hawke's Bay breeders not unnaturally complain of the small price they get for sheep for freezing, compared with those ruling in Canterbury. The freezing companies retort that the Canterbury farmers not only breed better mutton sheep, but use turnips to such an extent as to keep the freezing works going all the year round, whereas here it is a glut at one season of the year, and nothing to freeze for the rest. The geniality of our climate as compared with that of the Bouth Island is no doubt mainly responsible for the neglect to übo turnipa more, though their value is beginning to be more appreciated every year. As to the class of sheep bred, nearly every cross has been

tried, but the general testimony has been that if the mutton was improved up to the demands of the freezing companies the wool suffered

to such an extent aa to more than nullify the gain in the quality of the meat. It appears that in Canterbury there are now complaints as to the quality of the wool offering at the local sales. The Lyttelton Times quotes the opinions of several buyers this year, and concedes that their remarks are true. There are, these critics remark, hard 1 7 any clips now offering at the" local Bales which do not show a cross of Down, It is not, wo presume, to be taken that all the breeders in Canterbury have gone in for such crosses. No doubt the explanation iB that the large breeders, who Btill pay first attention to wool, mostly ship their clips to the Home market, and the bulk of the wool offering at the local sales is roailo up of small farmers' lots. And the small farmer, it is said, finds it nioio profitable to cater for the freezing works buyer than for the wool buyer. " Farmers," gays our Christchurch contemporary,

" will not easily be persuaded that it would be to their advantage to forego the production o£ a twelveshilling fat lamb and keep their halfIreds for a year for a five shilling fleece ami a alioru hogget worth some shillings less than the lamb. We fear that the wool-buyer must Bubmit to taking the second place in the fannera' consideration as long as fat lambs command their present value. Special causes have contributed towards the present season's scarcity of good crossbred wools. The scarcity of feed on the Plains compelled numbers of farmers to sacrifice their breeding flocks, while the favorable season on the runs enabled large numbers of sheep and lambs which would ordinarily have been Bold as stores or for breeding purposes to be fattened for export. The time that will see farmers breeding their own ewes will not bring an increase in the supply of half-bred wool, for the farm flock of the future will probably he of one of the Down greeds, in which the superiority of the meat, be it lamb or mutton, will more than counterbalance any shortcomings in the quality or quantity of the fleece. ¥c cannot, therefore, see much prospect of a large increase in the production of the desired quality of either crossbred or merino wool, though doubtless there will be a return to merinoes on some oE the stations where they have been too hastily superseded by crossbreds."