At The Furrow’s End

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 128, 20 August 1927, Page 26

At The Furrow’s End

Australia’s Sheep t ————————— i Owning one-sixth of the world’s l sheep, Australia produces one-third of j the world’s wool, in which is included . more than half the total output of line 1 wool. Y For the year ended June 30, 1925, ( sheep were responsible fcr more than c 51 per cent, of the exports from the " Commonwealth. These and other remarkable side- 6 lights on the importance of the sheep 1 and wool industry to Australia were £ given by Senator Guthrie at the Australian Sheepbreeders’ Show, which was concluded at the end of July. For the year 1924-25. said Senator Guthrie, the Commonwealth derived from woolskins, mutton and tallow, goods to the value of £76,000.000. The average annual value to Australia of wool and sheep for !<■ the last 10 years has been ' £40,000,000. The opinion that this wealth flowed i into comparatively few hands, said , Senator Guthrie, was very erroneous. Broadly speaking, there were SO,OOO flockmasters in Australia, of whom 95 per cent, owned flocks of fewer than 5,000 sheep. There were about 3.000 sheepowners only whose flocks exceeded 5,000 head. The average price of wool for the five years previous to the Great War was<f9ld a lb. In the war period when the British Ministry took over the whole of the Australian clip the price rose to a fraction of more than 16 id a lb. For the year ended June 30 last the average value of Australian wool was 162 d a lb. Not only did Australia depasture considerably more sheep than anv j other country in the world, but our ! sheep were of greater value a head i than those of any competing nation. I and produced twice the quantity of wool a head. An Automatic Cow j A “cow” that gives new milk j skimmed milk, malted milk, cream’. ! I fruit-flavoured milk, and ice-cream to ! | order; that never kicks or flicks its j

tail in the milkmaid’s eye; that is never seasick, never dry, and that can be milked as well by a marine engineer in mid-Atlantic as ty a milkmaid, is the remarkable “animal” taken on board the African and Eastern Trade Corporation’s steamer Nigerian, before she sailed from Liverpool recently. This wonderful cow requires neither exercise nor grass and she delivers milk of any degree of creaminess and at any temperature to order. There are several of these automatic cows on ocean liners to-day. They are fed largely with dried milk and butter produced on Waikato pastures. All the “milkmaid” has to do is to give the machine—for such this wonderful invention is—a feed of milk powder, fresh butter, and a drink of water. press a button, and the cow does the rest. The milk is as .rich and fresh as that from any dairy cow, and no amount of rolling on the part of

the export trade of pigs serious consideration, the mass suppliers agr**to the company bearing the loss dotsby the 24 suppliers who had exportr last season, a call having been natupon them for a deficiency of which had resulted from the expo-' ment.