THE DISPOSAL OF SURPLUS STOCK.

Marlborough Express, Volume III, Issue 96, 11 January 1868, Page 6

THE DISPOSAL OF SURPLUS STOCK.

There can no longer be much doubt ou the minds of the Victorian public that a system of boiling down will require to be introduced in various districts throughout the colony, and this in the face of the fact that the prices for wool do not show the same healthy tendency in English markets as reported some months since. The importance of such statements docs not rest upon the abundance,-as compared with the resources of the pastoral districts, but upon the want of consumptive resource in this population, and upon the stand which other wool-pro-ducing countries are beginning to take in the European market. The change which has been foreshadowed in reference to the ultimate standard of wool begins to force itself upon the minds of those who may be looked upon as experts in commercial prophecies of this nature; and if we contemplate the rapid rate at which wool production has grown within the last few years in Victoria and elsewhere, as compared with the present and probable future demand, it may be concluded, with some show of reason, that the requirements of the wool markets of the world will not expand in proportion to the wool production. In former times, when boiling down was the only resource of large squatters, the comparative sacrifice of the carcase was more than counterbalanced by the advantageous market which England offered for the fleece and fat. So far the industry, if we might apply such a term, was profitable to sheepbreeders, and the annual destruction of thousands of sheep was regarded as the only legitimate mode of conserving the resources of the stations. At the present time, however, it should he remembered that, if the home market is likely to offer a less price for the fleece, the carcase would command a highly remunerative rate, and w T e cannot but regard the re-introduction of the old boiling-down system in Victoria as marking a veiy crab-like stride in our progress. So far as our squatters are concerned, they must work their stations to suit their resources, and they must adopt the most profitable mode in disposing of their produce; hut the question for them to consider, as for the public generally, is whether the melting pot is the only resource left to them. Without entering into details on such a question, it is enough for the general consideration of the subject to know that there. are millions of acres of pastoral country on this continent that are available for sheep, and are yet unstocked ; and that the experiences of the last few years have taught our pioneers of settlement that the most unpromising-looking country can be reclaimed -by . the outlay of capital in the judicious,.erection of dams and sinking of wells.-- This latter would of course prove a work of time, and as work of capital, also, would-necessarily be slow; except advan- , x---1■ t'' '

tages were offered by our intercolonial Governments as would attract more directly and energetically to such an investment. That millions of animals should be slaughtered for the sake of the fat, and the essence which the melting pot extracts, and the insignificant price which such an operation gives per sheep to the proprietor, in the teeth of the fact that meat is selling at an unprecedentedly high price in England, says but little for the usefulness of our scientific men, or the enterprise of the people. It may well be asked what use did the Intercolonial Exhibition serve, and whether its success, whatever it was, does not become insignificant beside the statement that we are unable to supply England with the production which is characteristic of the country to the full profit of the producer and to the great benefit of thousands of families there, and throughout the world. The farthest advance which the system of boiling-down has yet made, in the light of the above suggestion, is recorded by the Economist, as follows : Result of boiling-down 1,000 prime wethers, averaging 60 lb., and yielding 28 lb. of tallow each (they often do 301 b.), 12 tons. 10 cwt

Iset result ss. Id. per head for tallow alone, without taking into account the skin, which at this season of the year is 3s. 6d., making ‘los. 7d. per head. Prime ewes of 501 b. to 541 b. per head will yield the same. A wether of the same frame, but fattened up to 541 b. only (not reduced from 6ulb.) will give 25lbs. of tallow, and nec 6s. 3d., or with the skin at the present time, 9s. 9d. A 481 b. wether, of medium frame, in prime condition, will yield 231 b., and net ss. 7d., or with the skin 9s, Id. To this has to be added the value of the meat, which is successfully preserved by more than one process. Let us, however, take Liebig’s, now in successful practical operation by Messrs. Tooth, in Queensland, so that its application is merely a matter of capital and teaching of men the process of manipulation. The result is lib. of essence from 30lbs. of meat, which is now disposed of readily here for 145., or about 5-£d. to the pound of meat. When supplied wholesale, the produce must find a market iia Europe, where, even with the high price prevailing for meat, this high price could not be relied upon; but, as the essence contains the whole of the nutriment in the meat, we may safely count upon 2d. per lb. for the flesh of the carcase, exclusive of the tallow, which is only from one-fifth to one-seventh of the price of the same meat in England. Besides the tallow, there has been deducted for the bone from the wethers 151 b.., leaving 291 b. of meat, value 4s. lOd. ; from the ewes, 121 b., leaving 141 b., value 2s. 4d. I cannot ascertain whether the bones are included in the 30lb. of meat producing the lib. of essence, but to be safe, it is deducted ; and for the same reason, the 4lb. of slb. of tallow extracted from the bones are not counted. The proceeds from 4,000 would be thus : Wethers, prime, 2,010, iu tallow, 7s.

Being 10s. 8-Jd. per head, and with the skin at the present season, 14s. 2£d, per head. Wethers of same frame, 541 b., will, for tallow and essence, net Bs. 7d.; ewes, 401 b., 6s. 6d. ; being an average of 7s. 6Jd. for the carcase alone, and 11s- 0-S-d. counting the present skin. —Ararat Advertiser.

at i6’36 ... .. j£450 0 0 Boiling down 1,000 head, at 6d. per head Casting ditto ... 30 — 55 0 0 i£395 0 0 Carriage of’ twelve and a half tons of tallow from Echuca ... 40 12 6 5 6

Id. per head . .£711 17 6 Ditto, essence, 4s. lOd. ditto 485 15 0 Ewes, 1,990, tallow, 7a. Id. ditto ... 704 16 8 Essence, 2s. 4d. ditto 232 3 4 £2,134 11 ‘ 6