A FLOATING FARM YARD.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 803, 28 April 1910, Page 10

A FLOATING FARM YARD.

THE DAVENPORT SHEEP. The Otaki yesterdays-looked like a floating farmyard. AOn her fore-deck < wore fourteen., large and; stoutly-built, sheep pens, ranged in two. almost .con- . tinuous rowsvon each side of the deck - from the bridge-house to the. forecastle, ■ 'while down ..the. centre': were another half-dozen pens. In > these 'were the 194 stud sheep which Mr: J;• E. Davenport is ,-taking to the Argentine. On the after-. ideck were ten two-stalled, horse-boxes: to accommodate Mr. G. D. Greenwood's ' twenty thoroughbred yearlings, also bound for Bnenos Ayres under Mr. . Davenport's care. . The :e boxes wero - ' an reality Bmail stables, being about ten ' feet square and nine* feet high. They .were all securely lashed down, but a landsman, could not' 'help; wondering how this big collection , of- stock would 'fare in a gale at sea Questioned on , the point, Mr Davenpoit, who '..ihas shipped many sheep-out from-England, said the'anim ds would be: as snug'and right as could 'be., ~was made thoroughly "fast,'' and . the . :peu3 would bo securely, epvered .with'-.. tarpaulins in dirty weather.;' The big boats nowadays never had much .more than a little spray on'board. The .sheep, are a representativ3 lot, : and-should give the /Argentine breeders a;:good idea of what i the leading- fteks'ln the Dominion are out. ' . " .