OUR WOOL SUPPLY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume xvx, Issue 228, 25 September 1880, Page 4

OUR WOOL SUPPLY.

I Australian 1 wool growers must be. ] well satisfied at learning that they have d notv 7 alih6st the monopoly of the Eng-! j lisbwobl supply. No other nation ori ij country .<ban: ; compete with; th&m.'j i Europe sends us only a- -thirtieth of; j the whole araqunt/and this, which comes j >[ mainly from Saxony and Spain, "is "ai j ..particular ; kind of fine merino wool, j J America, with its vast pasture lands! l| and prairies^canhot succeed in raising' rj sheepv The'fine crisp. grasses, which bj are the sheep's favorite food, will not jl grow in America, where thei3xtremes" 3 of:, heat and : cold ' are "fataD to ' jKfem. ! . Australian 'grass^i^ far 1 superior', while 3 th^ general dearth of water does not' r affect the question, as sheep; can dd i well with a sraaU allowance. /.TBut thb r most r fayors)le soil ; for ; sheep ris really , our own .; British, isles. ' Farmers may ) rave atthe fickle and detestable cli--5 mate, with its capricious doWnpdui-s ;of j pelting rain at the jinqs't unSeasiimable. >1 time,' drowning 'tlie wheat crops and! 'j ruihing the roots;, but; there Nis \no )j doubt that the prevalenceTof. moisture i; gives us some, qf the, finest grass: in -the: ? world. The brilliancy of, "the -.green i turf islal ways remarkable 1 in Englamf 3 and never, more so than when "the cbun7 • try has been drenched with' lieavy and i continuous " rain, as • now. .Still, the, ■ British isles, although they may con- » tinue to produce the best mutton in the • world, will never, be able tp raise' suffir cient wool for our demands. How ■ inadequate are our efforts In this direction may be gathered from a comparison i of the of^hepp l raased here and jin Australia. Athohie iKe r proportion ; i is -one sheep-for* every individual in a ; population ofthirty" millions"; out there. | the proportion is twenty-two sheep, to 'oß'ttpersoiT. ... ■ ,\ r J '■.'■ '-.' '<•»■-