The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1889. The Wool Season

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 52, 19 October 1889, Page 2

The Feilding Star. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1889. The Wool Season

Shearing has already commenced in this district, and several dray loads of wool have been brought to the railway station aud forwarded to Weliington. It is expected the clip will be above the average this season owiug, iv a great measure, to the exceptional fineness of the weather, aud the consequent abundance of fpod. The following figures will be some assistance to our readers in forming a tolerably correct opinion as to what will be the probable wool export from Feilding this season :— ln the Oroua County in 1887 there were 159,606 sheep; in 1888, 200,202, showing an increase of 50,597. Allowing for the uuuiber exp-jrted and locally cousumed it is not too much to expect that the increase, by breeding and purchases from the East Coast, will raise the numbers for 1889 to 275 000. This is not at all a high estimate, because to our own knowledge many flocks have dropped over a huudred per cent, of lambs. The number of bales of. wool sent from Fei.diug station in 1886 were 700; in 1887, 1012; in 1888-89, 1545, and this season it will probably be 2500 or upwards. To this must be added the number sent by way of Halcombe or Palmerston by drays to be forwarded on. A large area of nearly 50,000 acres of good land has been cleared, fenced, grassed and otherwise prepared for carrying stock during the current year ; therefore it is more than probable it will be found that after the Government returns have been compiled and published, our estimates are somewhat below the mark. However, even accepting these figures at their lowest, they show with what rapid strides settlement is pro grossing in our neighborhood, and how much roal encouragement our sheep f aimers get froiu Mother Nature to exercise even greater energy iv the cultivation and stocking 1 of their land. As prices promise to remain at their present satisfactory level, with occasional advances of certain picked classes of wool, the outlook for all sections of the cotnmuuiiy, who anmore or less affected by the market Value of this staple article of export, is certainly very hopeful. The much talked of wave of depression may now be said to have receded into the ocean of oblivion, whiie the many miseries it caused are forgotten, but we hope the lessous of economy thereby taught will bear good results in the present, as well as the coming, good times.