IMMENSE LOSS OF SHEEP IN SOUTH AMERICA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1368, 12 October 1886, Page 3

IMMENSE LOSS OF SHEEP IN SOUTH AMERICA.

Captain Baldwin informs the Otago Daily Times that he learns from priva>advices from Buenos Ayres of July 27 that a fearful loes of sheep had taken place in that country, iho loss being placed as high even as 20 000 000 sheep and lambs. His private advices are borne out by the Standard of Buen«s Ayr»s of July 11, which he has kindly shown us. ard from which we make th' following extracts :—“ Every day brings fresh confirmation of the widespread losros of sheep, the estimate being 20,000,000, including lambs. Only a amaU number perished in the fl rods, the mortality being chiefly caused by au epidemic, which some farmers ascribe to a change in the grasses of the district! heret fore oreratooked. There has been no 1 ss on the outside thinly settled camps. Noiwthatanding the disastrous season that has befallen the sheep farmers, there is no intimation of aov reduction of the export duties on wool.” An eatanclero of 25 years’ experience, born and bred in the country, the owner of two estancias, writing to the Standard about this matter, is thus summarised by the editor :—“ He e:t : matea the lo:-s of big sheep from 5,000.000 to 10 000,000, and says the Increase will be nil, which thus brings up the loss to over 20,000,000, a value little short of £3,100,009 sterling. Farmers who have lost least have sent in 3000 or 3000 sheepskins. This is irrespective of floods, and la the result of an epidemic tb« nature or origin of whiih is unexplained.” The same paper of July 27 again refers to the matter thus :—“There has not been ■ach mortality amongst the flocks since the great drought of 1859, an interval cf 37 years ; and it is feared that the suffarfugs of the humbler class of sheep-farmers will Le Intense. . . . The latest ac counts from the camp report « lot of rain In the north and south, and the next thing to a drought in tbe west and northwest. The present losses in sheep are awfnl. Some flocks of 20C0 are reduced to 450. I . The present losses of Hooks are caused by over-stocking and by the weathe-. The latter is the principal cause, as the rain this season cme too late . - • Sheepfarmers are g'lng through a crisis; since 1883 they have not had a satissactory increase in their flacks, and the small men are near'y all rained by the losses of the last two seasons.”

Captain Baldwin tells us that in consequence of this If si the estimated deficiency in the wool supply in Buenos Ayres for the nine months ending the 30ch June 1886, ss compared with the same period of 1885, was 60,000 bales ; end as each bale weighs, say, SCO b, the deficit would thus amount to 40.000,0001 b, or nearly half the entire clip of New Zealand. Possible this may explain to tome extent the recent rapid rise in wool at Home. The rise began In Antwerp, which, as we know, is the great matt of South American wool.