LATEST ENGLISH NEWS. THE SHEEP SCOURGE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1104, 25 August 1880, Page 2

LATEST ENGLISH NEWS. THE SHEEP SCOURGE.

All sheep-breeding countries in all ages appear to have suffered more or less from the sheep-rot or fluke. We have had it here in England in various degrees of intensity for the last hundred and fifty years. But never before . has th"d i "mysterious parasite known as the Distoma hepaticuni done more mischief than in the last twelve months. It always follows a wet summer and autumn, and is most destructive in lowlying lands, which are both ill-drained and badly-farmed. As these are conditions happily uncommon in the great sheep pastures of the Antipodes, where, happily, wet summers are also unusual, j Australian sheep breeders need have no special dread of the fluke On the contrary, the ravages caused by the present epidemic iti English sheep cannot but tend to the advantage of the Australian shepherd. The supply of homegrown wool and mutton has been so seriously affected that increased quantities of foreign and colonial must be imported to meet the deficiency. We are many millions of flocks short, because numbers of "animals were slaughtered last winter to save their values, which would of course, have been lost had they been attacked by the disease. Now, a number more which would naturally have gone to market have been retained for breeding purposes, so ..that it is inevitable the price of both mutton and wool, will rise, AIL this, must benefit Australia. Australia' has : always done well in wools, especially in the better class, for which there is now a much greater demand than in previous years, and we may expect, therefore, much increased briskness in the wool, trade. But there ought to be a still greater opportunity in meat. It was generally acknowledged that although critics were somewhat doubtful about the flavour and quality of the beef, the fresh mutton imported by the Strathleven was quite equal to any home grown. The Australian is far superior to the American. The new arranger ments for shipment and passage afford every facility for sending home large and regular supplies. So it will be the fault of the Australian sheep-breeders and shippers if they do not make something good out of the misfortunes of their brother farmers at home.