WHAT BULLOCKS CAN DO.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 152, 21 March 1908, Page 3

WHAT BULLOCKS CAN DO.

A'; GLIMPSE INTO BACK' BLOCKS LIFE.' 'It is '.wonderful' what; country a bullock dray can travel over (writes our. travelling correspondent): I saw,-a-.team taking outa. load of wool, flvo' bales on tlio dray. ' When I; first saw them they were slowly travelling across a flat. Soon they began to travel'tip a-pretty'steep .spur—it was all I could do to hang in the stirrups—but the.pace of tho bullocks 1 seemed to be just the same. .A peculiarity about working bullocks, perhaps not' known :to ; the 'city,,man, is that they work in; pairs; as mates. - It is almost impossible to mix up the pairs:.they won't work with a strange mate. Then', again, the place in the'team .is/usually/occupied by the same pair; leaders are'kept.'in the lead and polo'rs in thoir ; accus'tome'd. place.' Tho drays used in these -hilly districts have '.wheels- of very small diameter; an ordinary wheel would skid. ' Good polers are : invaluable. It is' simply marvellous to seo the way'they hold the 'load, going, down - hill;' they nevfcr give back' when.-' thoy; feel the load; coming on them.. A horse, under similar circumstances; would hang back, arid away/the whole thing would go. : When one'sees the out-of-way plaoes in which some of the earlier settlers fixed their homesteads,, one'wonders how. in the' world they got. their stores/in and their produce out. "'Hills'and gullies seem to have Beeni no.; obstacle.;./-. .'I, .was) shown a hill ,up which a'-team of bullocks, had' lately, been taking fencing posts. It seemed to me to be simply incredible. Tho driver told mo that so long as -the bullocks could hold by kneo or hoof they would .never give -back. \ V 1 '