COLONIAL RESOURCES.

Otago Witness, Issue 537, 15 March 1862, Page 7

COLONIAL RESOURCES.

The sheep in the United Kingdom arc said to number forty millions, and their wool to weigh annually one httndrc'l situl twenty millions of pounds. This quantity of wool contains about five and a half millions of pounds of sulphur, or as much as exists in fourteen or fifteen thousand tons of gypsum. AH this is extracted from the soil, ;ind htiiice ;i rirejsinp; of 1 gypsum on sheep pasture improves it, and increases the yieid and qu.iliiy of the wool. — JUiniiisn Atmannc

According to the statistics of tae year IRfO, the launder of sheep in the colony amounted to 5,794,127, whilst the weight of wool is given at 24,273,910 lbs. By reference to the above paragraph, it will be seen that in the quantity of wool we yearly export we abstract and send away from the soil of this country, on a rough calculation, about one million pounds weight of sulphur, or a* much of this article as exists in about three thousand tons of gypsum. Now, it is clear that as sheep can no more produce a healthy ileeee of wool unless sulphur be present as a constituent in the grass they eat, than can poultry lay eggs with shells if deprived of all access to lime-earth, this continued abstraction of sulphur must, in the long run, not merely interfere with the growth of plants, but with the prosperity of the wool -producing interest.

The valuT of gypsum as a dressing for pastures has been long well known. Although its importance as a manure for land has often been overestimated, 'we are told by Professor Johnston that it is in Germany applied to grass land with great success, over large tracts of country, and that in the South of England it has been applied to some grassed lands with benefit for thirty-five years in succession, at the rate of 2£ cwt. per acre. Professor Johnston adds : — " In the United States it is used for every kind of crop, and I have there seen it produce very striking effects on Indian corn. It is especially adapted to the pea, the bean, and the clover crops. It is more sensibly efficacious when applied in the natural state than after it is burned. The sulphates all afford sulphur to the growing plant, while the lime, sola, magnesia, &c, whii-h they contain are themselves in part directly appropriated by it, and in part employed in preparing other kinds of food, and in conveying them to the ascending sap." We have every reason to believe that all the host soils and pasture lands of this colony are well supplied with both lime and with sulphuric acid — the former existing in all the basaltic soils, and plentifully in the clays aud marls of the northern and north-western districts ; whilst the latter has been, and is probably now, supplied by the decomposition of iron pyrites or sulphuret of iron, which is found plentifully in the old rocks of our hills and ranges. It may therefore not be necessary for years to come to apply gypsum to our pastures; but it must be quite evident, that the continual abstraction of a large quantity of sulphur and other constituents will at a future period render the use of gypsum, if not absolutely necessary, at least most valuable in increasing production. Where would the material be obtained for such a purpose ? It exists in this colony in unsurpassed abundance. Some hundreds of square miles in the Wimmera district, hot ween Lake llindmarsh aud the junction of the Darling with tho Murray are covered with a deposit of it. So abundant is it, that, on a moderate calculation, if a hundred thousand tons wore annually removed there would be no considerable diminution of the vast store in a thousand years. Over wide tracts the surface is composed of nothing else, and it i 3 many feet in depth. The facts were first made known in this journal in 'Xotes of a tour in the Wimmerra districts, but we have thought it desirable to pla?e them more prominently before the public. In the locality indicated there is an ample store of this material for all the purposes for which it is used by civilised man. — ' The Yoemaii.'