Middle island Sheep Farming.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1871, 16 August 1886, Page 2

Middle island Sheep Farming.

Is an article on ” Mistakes in Sheep Farm’ lag," tha Can .n bury Times remarks “that it does not speak well for sheep (arming as a i industry whan wa hear of sheep owners in many cases being able to find no better use (or their surplus stock thru tnrniog them into manure. But (he fact of the matter is that tone are thousands and even tens ef thousands of sheep in this country which arc fit for no other purpose than fertilising the ? dl. Merino ewes are kept on the stations Jill i! ■ have not the semblance of a tooth left i i their heads, and are so decrepit as bcaioely to be able to crawl away from

native pastu'es, and are then brought i to the market and sold to the farmers, when homers have so little judgment as to bu; them,” Our contemporary adds Under the depressing influence of bad harvests ami low prices many farmers gave over tillage and took to sheep farming, without experience and without judgment. Breeding was gone into more extensively than ever, and the acreage of turnip crops at the same time reduced. Under these circumstances, had the summer becu favorable the supply of winter feed must have been short enough, and as ills we have a total collapse of the market for store and breeding sheep, while both mutton and wool are, or have been, selling well in the Home markets. There will no doubt be a heavy mortality this winter, hat there is at least this consolation that a good deal of the mortality will be among a class of sheep which are a disgrace to the country, and caunot possibly be a source of profit to anybody.”