THE SHEEP QUESTION.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXI, Issue 12636, 24 March 1905, Page 4

THE SHEEP QUESTION.

MB G. AOTJEBSON V. MB R. GUTHRIE. WHAT IS A LAMB? About a month ago Mr Robert Guthrie, of Burke's Pass, ia a letter to the. editor of the "Herald"- criticised some remarks then recently made bj Mr Gilbert /Anderson, managing director of the ChristcKurch Meat Company,, and-asked Mr Anderson to give bis reasons for asserting that, Tfhile thq catting "up of the front country for closer* settlement jwa3 commendable, "it is open' tp serious dftubt whether the subdivision of the large breeding stations wilKnot renit in the diminution of the number of stores for "breeding and fattening purposes." ;. "Mr Anderson, happening to be in Timaro . ■ vh* Wednesday a representative of the " Heraid" drew las attention to this letter, and Mr Anderson/found time to reply to it, and also to add some remarks on'other phases of the sheep question which, coming from ssdt a source, most: be of great interest to sheep,-breeders and graziers. ' wisdom or otherwise of the policy of catting up the back country stations 'from' niy point said Mr Anderson, "is Jnrmrei in the general question of the <?pply of cannot be considered ' alone.ln my opinion a man owning land iit the low' country, T say land worth anything over £l3 an acre, cannot use it so profitably for breeding ewes, as for breedmg and fattening l&mbe. Hi< most profitable course is tt> get his ewes elsewhere,' raise and'fatten lambs and get rid of them. To raise ewes, from lambs means two years' feed- at least, and a small percentage of . lambs the first year. (By the way, our lambing: percentages are lower than they ought to be. We are satisfied with 120, though they get'24o and 150 at Home.) Tstatedthat the Canterbury farms are the places where lambs should ,be raised .and fattened, and that the stock of ewes should be kept up from the large breeding stations at the back. Mr Guthrie challenges the word Targe." I adhere-to it, for three reasons, First, because the larger the holding in hill country,.the better the use than can be madeVf it, by working summer and winter country *n tern accordingto the season. Second, because the large owner is less likely to be tempted to deplete Ms stock by ig marked rise in prices," which a smaller owner might conclude only temporary and he would sell, intending to stock up again when prices fell. Third, Merino flocks can only be kept up to. a good standard in large flocks, and the ukfiDf holder* its a matter of fact goes ia for halfbred ewes, and uses longwool rams with them, the result being that he breeds threeKjuartqrbred .ew.es for the low-" lauid farmer to raiser lambs from, again as a rule witb another longwool ran?. ' These are sot. the Mknbs that gave Canterbury ita .name. The -large owner is content to maintain » merino floek, from which he sends down to the farms halfbred lambs for fattening, and that is the End that makes " prime Canterbury." If the farmers used the small Southdown rain on their big ewes equal result might be obtained. I am not an advocate clf large holdings, per "se, quite the contrary; but in view of the circumstances, in view of what is best for our frozen meat industry, it appears to me, for the reasons I have stated,, that larger holdings-of Mil country are better for the country than small ones. I tfrfntr J have now answered Mr Guthrie's challenge by giving reasons." Pursuing the interview upon another track, Mr Anderson spoke regretfully of . the_ way in which farmers are holding bacj[ their* fat lambs from the freezing works, in spite of. the high prices offered "for them. He admitted the plea that "feed" is a property aa owner does not like to ■ see \ going to waste, and the difficulty of pro-' curing stores to eat the superabundant feed now covering the country if an owner sold his stock. But the result of -holding on to lambs must, he fears, prove unprofitable and injurious to the trade in tbe long rum With muck cara and trouble a market bad been made for Canterbury lamb, and Home buyers had learned to look upon the supply as assured, and had secured their market tungng cgnmnenr. : If the 'supply from - this endr fdl-off/ thoee buyers" nratfT seek their mpjß#Ke]««whe*vand t&de followed » rat much-more certainly than it followed ■the flag. A striking msfancy of? fftfc was fact that New Sbu'tli Wares'tiad' never recovered the 'cool-tracfe lorit dfaiiigftbe big strike. Beaides.lkmb is-lamfc/nrutfon is mutton, and " tegs "-—overgrown lamb-—are neither one nor the other. A certain amount of demand has been found for tegs, ; which perhaps takes the place of Welsh mutton, but'the demand is so nm»n that tegs have frequently been sold in London fo* less; thSui full-grown nrotton. On the other hand, there was nd'difficulty in plac- ■ . ing all the Jambs' that Canterbury could send- His.< company had acceded to the request of Marlborough farmers to establish works among them, almost wholly because they had stock to produce large numbers of lambs for export. the "line of least resistance," - Qi line means friction and rgifirtSnce; hence, the difficulty of difficulty which is :ourse,-l>y the fear that a similar disappoxntiiient may bp. experienced at any time. .j-ICfinterbury had established a name for Tamba, and it weuld be a thousand pities if that name |fc«dd be lostj or that mj cause should

tie taken which is likely to endanger it. Ifie English buyer will not let the New Zealand farmer have things all his own way; the producer must study the re-, of .'the' consumer, or submit -to be ousted by some one who will do so. It could-not be said that were-not offered ftdr pricM, fOl i-rices'aow are such as were not dreamt of when the;trade waa itiurted.- 7'Aiy]Waibao Downs the other lay 18s was refusedj for; lambs, so that none can say~that 'holding back is a practical, protest against-low prices.' Mr Anderson drew attention, to and made x -few.remarks upon a letter in that day's Christchurch " Press/' the writer ; of which accused his company's buyers, of damaging the lamb trade, by- offering low prices for small lambs, so that the farmer preferred to weaathem, and hold on to. them, and make them as heavy as possible. Furthermore, "He asked Mr Anderson to define lamb," and stated" that the lamb is at its best whgn it is still taking an ibnndance of milk from its mother and also eating an abundance .of green feed. "Mr Anderson- gave our representative his definition of " lamb." It was not, he said, a dictionary .definition; nor based upon :hat " counsel of perfection," the rape padlock alongside. the ewe pasture but avail-' -able to the lambs only; it was the frozen meat tiade. definition—a young sheep .nnder 421bs. If ."lamb" was to be restricted as the writer of the letter suggest ed t there would not be 30 per cent, •if the present tiade done in Canterbury 'lamb." The Scottish system of rape feeding lambs' was too expensive to be adopted here. The - \friter was misinformed, if he believed tie company's buyars did not give a premium for quality. It was, the system of. "pound buying" which led tbie farmer to "make them as heavy as possible," but if the knowing farmer who" ran on Border Leicesters" it the Bam Fair.'inquired at- the works he would findfewbfhis_big framed lambs bought at per—lb, were ever graded as "Eclipse," and the large proportions of these big-framed, not properly finished B.L. bred lambs, to injure Canterbury's' good nameT-' _ The remedy for the shortage of. ewes, and the way to maintain "the name of t the district, Mr Anderson considers, is to ! import large framed merino ewes from Australia; and it was to be that this- would be done next season—(it. is too late this year)—and then, with English .Leicesters, Southdowrs, and Shropshires, on' attempt could made to bring back the Canterbury lamb trade to whatjt was in its parly'days.; -The breeder and fattener . 'shouldr 'look to the'future and not only to the present. He admitted ,of course, that the lambs held back now, must come to the works later on, but it ifras the lamb trade that paid the farmer, and the holding-on policy endangered that trade. It opened the way to competition, and the North.lsland people were now sending lambs Home to an extent they had not thought of, their December and January shipments having increased as much as those of Canterbury had fallen back.