DROUGHT LOSSES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 April 1938, Page 3

DROUGHT LOSSES

AUSTRALIAN AREAS SUFFER SEVERELY. MORTALITY AMONG SHEEP. Droughts are not featured in Australian newspapers as they were a few years ago because it is realised that they are a “bad advertisement,” and an announcement on April 8 of some of the effects of a long 'dry spell in New Soutl? Wales is belated. At least 75 per cent of the inland pastoral country is in urgent need of rain, and many graziers state that the worst drought since 1902 is being experienced. Losses of stock have occurred, but if rain is not received shortly pastoralists say that there will be heavy mortality among sheep. Supplies of water are inadequate in some centres both for domestic and stock supplies. Western rivers are at a low level and are constantly falling. Stockowners in stricken parts are buying wheat at the grain silos, one farmer having purchased 2000 bushels to feed his starving stock. NO RAIN OF VALUE FQR 14 MONTHS. For 14 months there has been no rain of any value in the west, and for many months stock has been hand fed. It is hard to envisage what the Westhern country looks like at present. As far as Orange the land is fairly normal. But from Orange to Dubbo, and from Orange to Trangie, and into the far west, the land is parched and bare. Scarcely a sheep is to be seen on the roadside properties; they are all near the homesteads and the bores. On many stations the tooting of a car horn tells them that it is feeding time, and they hurry across the paddocks to receive their rations of grain; potatoes, or lucerne hay, the diet often being in ratio) to the value of the sheep which are fed. The drought extends over a wide area of Australia. In addition to New South Wales, pastoral conditions are bad practically throughout Victoria; and in Queensland west and north of Goondiwindi, and in the far southwest and central west. South Australia is in a better position, but in Western Australia a large portion badly needs rain. The immediate prospects for rain in parched areas are poor. ANXIETY FOR THE WHEAT CROP. One company in the West Wyalong area is'reported to be spending more than £250 a week in feeding stock, while at Nyngan an owner is stated to be paying £BOO a month to keep his stock alive. To this outlay will have to be added the losses of sheep, cattle and horses.

The general dryness is also affecting the outlook for the wheat crop. The land has become so devoid of moisture that farmers cannot get it into proper order for planting. Sowing should begin in some places by mid-April, but in several areas it will have to be delayed until rain is received. In some districts of New South Wales the worries of pastoralists have been increased by huge infestations of grasshoppers.