The North Eastern Ensign at KellyGang 19/9/1873
SHEEP
Everyone who roads the public journals must have been struck with the great activity which has recently prevailed in the importation of valuable sheep and cattle. Almost every ship that has lately arrived in the colony has brought out bulls and cows and rams and ewes of the best English breeds, and most of them have realised very high prices. This briskness in the cattle trade is owing to the proclamation which was published in April last, prohibiting the landing of stock in this colony which was exported after the 9th of June last, on account of the prevalence of cattle diseases in England, and however much we may suffer from this prohibition for some time to come there can be no doubt that at the present time the colony is materially benefitting, from it.
Increased attention is being paid to the breeding of stock, and great advances are being made, more particularly in sheep farming. Several gentlemen in the colony have distinguished themselves by the success which has attended their efforts to improve the colonial flocks; few perhaps more so than the Messrs Learmouth, whose estate at Ercildoun was sold a few days since, with the valuable stock it carried, for a quarter of a million of money. We are glad to see that many sheep farmers of the Benalla district are also keeping the same great object of improvement in view. Considerable success has been achieved by Mr R M'Bean of Kilfera, among others, in turning out prize sheep, and Mr P Ryan, of Goomalibee, has for a long time been successfully combining pastoral with agricultural pursuits; both these gentlemen hope to produce still better results with the valuable imported sheep and rams they recently obtained from Melbourne.
Among our more immediate local breeders we may mention Mr Nixon and Mr I. Hoskin, of Benalla, both of whom have for a long time been engaged in improving the quality of their flocks of half-bred Lincolns, and as they have at present only a limited pasture ground they have been enabled to pay them greater attention both in cultivating the best feeding grasses for their use and in other ways. The last named gentleman lately sent one of the ewes to Melbourne as a sample of his stock ;the animal, although not one of the best, attracted much attention from the judges there, both for perfect symmetry and good size as well as for the length and quality of the wool, and a good price - near upon £20 - being offered, the owner was induced to sell it, but has since refused a higher figure for several others of the flock. Mr Chinery and Dr Rowe, of Mansfield, have also distinguished themselves in the breeding of sheep, and the examples thus set have had a very beneficial effect throughout a great part of the North eastern district.
It was thought at one time by many persons that the long-woolled and large-framed sheep of the Lincoln and Leicester breeds were not adapted to this colony, and preference was generally given to the Merino, but experience has shown that if they are properly and well treated they thrive better and yield greater profits. The long-woolled sheep from Kilfera station which obtained prizes at the late agricultural show at Wangaratta are fine examples. of successful breeding, and this kind will, we believe, be found the most suitable for those farmers who chose to unite the two pursuits. They thrive well on English grasses, and land which has become grain-sick or "worked out" can thus be profitably rested and renovated, and at the same be supplied with the best of manure for future grain crops. It should not moreover be forgotten that the farmer who keeps sheep will probably have better opportunities of improving the breed than a man who devotes himself solely to pastoral pursuits.
At the same time very much has been already done by the squatters; as the sheep farmers have sometimes been improperly termed; the Merino breed has been most successfully acclimatised on the Ercildoun and other estates; and now we learn that a stud farm is about to be formed at the Mount Pleasant estate for the breeding of pure Lincoln sheep The gentlemen who are about to devote themselves to this work are Messrs Josiah and Sydney Austin and, as a preliminary step they intend to stock the run up to the value of £20,000. The high prices which have, recently been given for valuable stock sufficiently prove that the sheep farmers of the colony are prepared to spare no expense in order to improve their runs, and the large amount of money which has been invested in pastoral pursuits is a convincing proof that sheep farming will long continue to be one of the leading interests of the colony.
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