STOCKOWNERS' MISTAKES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVII, Issue 8146, 18 April 1887, Page 6

STOCKOWNERS' MISTAKES.

(Canterbury Times.) There seems to be a reaction among English farmers in favour of the longwoolled breeds of sheep. During the time that mutton sold at an excessively high price, the various Down breeds almost drove the long- wools out of the field. The fleece was a matter of hardly any consequence in comparison with the value of the carcase. But now that mutton has gone down and wool has gone up, there are signs of the fashion of the breeds undergoing a change, and the long-woolled sheep are coming to the fore again. The relative as well as the actual value of the fleece is much greater than it was when wool was cheap and mutton dear, and the fashion in breeds is naturally following the markets. Very likely, too, the demand for mutton caused the Down breeds to be introduced into localities to which they were not suitable, and in such cases farmers are returning to the natural order of things. It is a lesson most forcibly taught by experience, though not always regarded, that it is one of the greatest of mistakes to leave the course obviously marked out by nature, in order to follow the will-o'-the-wisp, the markets. The markets are variable, but the operations of nature are constant, and in farming it is always the wisest course in the long run to pay more heed to soil and climate than to present or probable condition of supply and demand. It has been very truly said that it is a mistake to neglect or forsake any industry when it is at its ebb, for that is the time when improvements can be most advantageously made, and, as a consequence, the foundation laid of future prosperity. Take the case of sheep-farming as an example. At a time when sheep of all sorts are selling high a flockowner who wishes to introduce the best blood into his flock, has to pay very dearly for it, but when the stock market is at the lowest stage of depression animals of the best quality may be obtained at a price considerably below their real value. This, of course, is bad for the breeder and seller of such stock, but it is the opportunity of the man who is wise enough to take a good thing when it is, in a manner, thrown at his head. It is very much the habit of the ordinary flockowner to say that it is not worth while to go even a few shillings higher in order to obtain good blood, when the stock he has already produced is nearly valueless,- but this is a mistaken view of the matter, for all past experience teaches that the fact of prices being low now is all the better reason why they should be high, or at any rate at a profitable figure at no very remote future. Present low prices of stock is one of the most fallacious of reasons for neglecting the improvement of a flock or a herd. This is an argument which bears with considerable force on the question of opening our ports to stock imported from Great Britain. At a time when prices were exorbitantly high for pedigree stock our ports were open ; but now that stock of that description may be purchased on the most reasonable terms, our breeders are debarred from availing themselves of the opportunity, and there is really little or no reason for supposing that the danger from disease is greater now than it was before our ports were closed.