SOME OF ARGENTINA'S DRAWBACKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2111, 9 August 1894, Page 7

SOME OF ARGENTINA'S DRAWBACKS.

Mr Willia ja Bateman, an old Vietoriail, after spending 10 jears in sheep-farming in Buenos Ayrts, has returned to Australia, reporting that the uncertainty of the climate is a great drawback uuder the present system of management. This is especially so in the province of Buenos Ayres, which contains 73 per cent, of the sheep in the whole republic. With no artificial aid in dry seasons millions of sheep and homed cattle are starved to death. For the "six months ending February last the loss was unprecedented. Some of the northern sheepowners lost every boof, and a titan who had simply lostall his lambs and half his grown stock was considered fortunate. A system of leasing land is in force* each sheepfarmer paying £80 per annum for blocks cf 520 acres. The ground is as a rule unfenced, at.d the only improvements a well and a shepherd's hut. The tenant has to make all the improvements he wants, and if at the end of the year anyone else outbids him he moves on to another block. Even after this heavy rent has been paid, the sheepowner is often obliged to shift his starving stock elsewhere, and in the recent drought this cost pome of them as much, as a shilling per head In a season such as the last the los:es are indeed co heavy that it will take farmers many years to regain their position.

T< c cost of shearing is about 9s per 100 for cheep and lambs all round, including keep and all other expenses.^ The clip last year was light, bidly grown, and with no Lfe in it.

Tee wool is dirty, but without yolk, because of the dust and dry season The general run cf sheep cut about 41b in the grease, be'ly wool included, and in a good year it averages 51b, which sells at a ou^dper lb onthchome.-t ad. The bulk of the wool is so had— samples sent to Australia by Mr Bateman fully bear out this assertion — that it oan only be worked up on the Continent, and the losses on Argentine wools when scoured were reported from Antwerp last season as h : gh as 70 per cent. These figures' deal with merinos, Lincolns, and crossbreda cutting a h( iviervfleece and selling at an average of 4d f»fcr lb, bellj wools half price. It is q i63tionable if the clip for next year will beany 1 great improvement on the last, as there has 1 been no growth of fleece in the first three orfom' months. To put the position of the Arg- ntina sheepfarmer in a nutshell, it means that rental and expenses, including the cost of moving stock for two months, amounts to 2s 6d per head, while a return of 3d per lb on wool last year showed a loss of Is 6d per head. Withoafc moving he might make ends meet, providing he has no loss in sheep capital. The figures aye given in English money, for gold by comparison with ths State paper currency is at a premium of 365 per c?nt.

Again, locusts are even a greater pest to the farmer than chronic revolution and forced currency. As in Australia, they come in flocks from the north, and the young broods do the mischief. In bad iocust seasons there is a heavy 1 ss in , sheep. The dust stovres in the dry seasons are violent, damaging, and dangerous — and come as suddeiily as a thunder-clap. Sheep-yards and other obstructions are often completely buried. — Australasian.

There waft a heavy coating of snow on Flag--e.% *fi HiU on Moiday. Three Ayrshire bulla and nine cows and heifers were shipped to Sydney by the Talons by Mr K. B. Ferguson, Waitati.

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