THE DROUGHT.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 473, 16 August 1915, Page 8

THE DROUGHT.

STARVING SHEEP.

NORTHERN FEED SHORTAGE.

Over 1,000,000 sheep are carried in the counties of Amuri, Waipara, Kowai, and Cheviot. This big sheep district is experiencing one of the mildest winters „that even the proverbial oldest inhabitant can recall. Yet it is probable that the mortality rate this year will be very heavy. A trip through from Waipara to Cheviot is most impressive. Never have the ewes looked so miserable. It is not only the ewes, but hoggets, too, are suffering severely. Right through this big belt of country the want of rain has left its impress. The scarcity of feed is not a matter of the last month or so. The sparse rainfall since August of last year never let the growth much ahead of the consumption, and the result has been short commons throughout, both summer and winter. Sheep are reported as being especially weak, and on many runs the station hands are kept busy skinning dead sheep. "I have never before seen sheep looking so badly," remarked a Scargill settler to a Sun representative. "My own are quite as bad as any others, and I almost shrink from going round them. The mortality already is high, and it will be considerably increased as the lambing season advances. The shortness of feed, owing to' the dry weather, was accentuated by so many farmers having to hold their lambs until the. winter time, on account of not being* able to secure space. This meant that the /feed" that usually would have helped to carry the big sheep through the critical winter and early spring period went, to keep the lambs in condition. Throughout North Canterbury the position is being felt acutely, and will result in an unsatisfactory lambing and a decrease in the weight of the wool clip. Those who are heavily stocked certainly are suffering most." Another well-known North Canterbury runholder ( gave it as his opinion that the sheep were worse off now than at any time in Jiis 50 years' residence in the northr" One small station with which he was acquainted w.as skinning anything up to .50 sheep per day. Though rain has again set in, the fall jn North Canterbury has been particularly light. The fall registered at the Christchurch Observatory up to 9 o'clock this morning was only a trifle over one-tenth of an inch. Even this will be welcomed, but soaking showers are what every farmer wishes to see.