DROUGHT

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 59, 3 December 1919, Page 13

DROUGHT

IMPENDING CRISIS IN NEW SOUTH WALES . A BLACK SOIL DESERT

Vivid descriptions of the conditions in the drought-stricken districts or New bouth Wales are appearing in the "Syd- ■ ney Daily Telegraph." The following from Moree is typical:—ln Moreo they Bre steeling themselves for the worst. Meanwhile they are hoping for the best that it; yet possible. There is no relnxation of efforts in stock-saving. Mile aftor milo over this black soil country the same glimpse of the desert meets the eye in every open space. Tho blackened surface, bare as a falowed wheat field, is scarred with huge, gaping cracks that tell of the'long and pitiless scorching of these lands of surpassing fertility. An inch of rain here would be of no more service than a barber's spray. There is only one wish . in; Moree—a week's steady rain. Nothing less than five or six inches, spread over several days, can bo quite effective. Heavy storm rams wonld sign the death warrants of untold sheep too poverty-stricken to movo over the black soil until "tho .griive-like fissures are closed. And withal the graziers philosophically agree that better too much than none at all and death to the famishing stock. , the Cordon Tightening. The drought, has piled' up a terrlnc debit of loss and anxiety for stockownera in the disiWot. The haunting tear now is that the crisis is at hand. , • The consensus of opinion is that, if a complete break in the conditions 0003 '• not occur within the next month, disaster will overtake this great pastoral district, which extends north. from the Gwydir to tho Barwon and the Queensland border. ~ A So'far the district has not suffered tho appalling losses of stock that have occurred to tho west and south; but this ■ is more the Tesult of 'heavy, patchy storms in May last .and the strenuous efforts to remove : threatened cattlo and sheep to other parts where a better fighting chance Now, however, the cordon is closing in every day on the desperate graziors. , If the drought lasts till the end of tho year, said a iiastoralist with extensive interests, it"will surprise me if half the sheep and most of the cattle now left in the district don't perish. • As things are now, I oau see no other fate for them. Only stock that are hand-fed can battle it out. Feeding Expedients. Whether this drought is the worst on record in these parts, as most men of lone and intimate experience' declare, is a' uuestion that does not help much in the elucidation , of the problems .that face the stockowners on every side. Certain it is. howover. that if. it drags on through the summer, as dio that of 1902, it will mean obliteration before the end. The last vestize of grass and herbage disappeared weeks - ago—in fact, mbnths ago< On manv holdings extensive lmnd-feed- . inff has been in progress for six months. Those unable to bear this burden have ' had their sheep on scrub or their cattle: on prickly pear for three or four months. So far the sheep'have endured these hard conditions remarkably well, but all stock are now rapialy on the downgrade. They have reached the 6tage when streneth fails tham on the rough, unnutritious diet of leaves and twiga. The prickly pear country, of which there ere hundreds of thousands of acres in this section of tho north-west, has stuck to the cattle-owners in. the trials of the past few months.' It is the last resource. ' Some cattle even fatten on near and scrub, but' with the majority it. is onlv a temporary expedient, and a wor one at that. .. Quest for Relief Country. In the early part of the - year there were" 1.877,000 sheep, 77,000 cattle,. and 10.000 horses in the Moree'stock, district. A roach estimate . is that possibly half of those remain. ,A considerable proportion of the balance' have dietf, but the bulk, especially of cattle, have been sent away. An early refuge was sought ' for cattle in Queensland, and most of' these are now in the last round of the struggle, 100 weak to' be moved.. Moree stock are also scattered in thousands all over the coastal and Monaro districts. • Ttvdav 500 head of bullocks were trucked on the long trail to Victoria. Manv' thousands more sheep and cattle woulo: be rushed away if there were trucks to be had or country to receive. It has been a great exodus.. No other course could have saved the district from: disaster infinitely greater than now threatens. The position in front is that' noasiblv a nuarter of the stock originally on the reiister must now be left in a gamble on the weather, with their lives as the stake. .. Water and Mortality, The one thing above all others that has helped to mitigate the ' rigours of the rainless season is numerous artesian bores. This has givjp a widely distributed supply of water such a 8 was un- ' known in the last big drought. Without this plentiful flow the knock-out would have coirie ere this. : ' . The bore drains, nevertheless, havo proved veritable death-traps to thousands of weakened lambing ew«s. It is the mortality in breeding ew?s that is one ' of the most serious features of tho struggle to save the material to rebuild the nocks, 'llhe lambing timed for October and November has but added fuel to the flames of disaster. It means not only no lambs, but-fewer ewes. By way of contrast, one .station, that has been highly ' stocked and Otherwise specially favoured, reports a marking of 87 per cent. , Another factor that Will retard recovery is; that there are' no calve 3, nor rail, there be a natural increase in cuttle next year. Hand Feeding. While there is no fear that bore water ■will give out, the saving of the 6tock now depends upon hand feeding. Some own- • ers are forced to tho conclusion that it will be cheaper in the end to let their 6tock take their chance of life of death than to attempt to get them away, or go in for costly hand feeding. The latter will continue to be largely resorted to while fodder can be obtained. It is arriving by mail to the amount of '400 to 500 tons weekly. Wheat lucerno hay are being chiefly used. '.The drought lias deposed the carrier's horse, and the motor-lorry has come to the rescue. One enterprising firm has four of these lorries constantly on the road distributing fodder to stations up to CO and 70 miles out. It would have been impossible to reach these with horse teams. Two of the largo stations havo been feeding as many as 40,000 sheep on dry wheat fo rthe past 6ix months. It has given satisfactory results, and stemmed the previous increasing deathrate. Tho cost works out at a halfpenny per sheep daily. Many others Ri'e feeding on a smaller scale. Whole maize has also been largely used, but it is becoming unprocurable. Maize has not given tho best of results. To give an instance; One owner has fed 900 ewes and 100 lambs on maize for seven months at a cost of <£1200, and has now put them on to lucerno hay, Tho sheep were dy> irig off, and the stock inspector's postmortem disclosed that the animals' stomachs contained- large ' earth balls. These were the accumulations of dirt Jicked up from the ground. It is but another proof that feeding from troughs isr the only safe practice. All are being financially, shaken in tho present ordeal., Lots of the holders in the south-western part of the districts in particular are snid to be absolutely done. The larger men will look to the banks to help to ro-establish them. Doubtless the banks will come to. their assistance as they have done in the drought days of yore. The position of many of tho smaller gr.iziers iB different. It i 6 strongly nrgeil that only Government assistance can savo them from being driven off the land and out of tho rank 3 of ttio producers. \ ~ '