THE PRICE OF SHEEP.

Waikato Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1482, 3 January 1882, Page 2

THE PRICE OF SHEEP.

I Speaking of the increase in the price of sheep in Australia during the past few [ years the Sydney Mail says : — At the I close of last week, the entire memo stud flock of the Hon. T. F. Cumming being under the hammer, 4566 ewes and 1113 rams were sold in 216 lots for a grand j total of £28,449, the time occupied by the sale not being more than four hours. This was smart work ; but the feature which was most surprising was the I prices realised for some of the picked lots. A lot of 10 ewes brought ,80 guineas each, and one four-year-old ram brought the unprecedentedly high figure of 1400 guineas, which, so far as our knowledge extends, is \>y several hundreds the highest price ever paici ior a single sheep hi Australia. And it ia noteworthy that this clearing sale took place at the close of the season and followed several large sales. Since Juty when the stud sheep sales of this city were held, when- the ram Sir Thomas 2nd, although seven years old, brought 304 guineas, within 76 guineas of what his sire brought in Melbourne seven years before, several large sheep sales have been held. The annual sales _of the Sheepbreeders' Association in Victoria, the Wagga Wagga show sales, aivd the annual sale of Sir Samuel Wilson's sheep may be mentioned as the principal of these. The total of the last was no less than £9300, and in addition there were numerable private transactions. Tnese' 1 figures plainly show that at the present day sheep are at the top in the Australian markets. From 1871 to 1876, stud 1 cattle held sway ; but these have been deposed, and the merinos now reign. Mr Cvunming's property may be regarded as a remarkable sale. It is not often such ! a stud is brought to the hammer. It took I nearly 20 years to bring the flock to the i perfect state the auctioneers and purchasers found it, for it was in 1563 that Mr Cumming selected for the stud, taking from flocks of which records appear as far back as 1838, when the Stony Point station was stocked from Tasmania. A sale which will bear comparison with it in all but the very high prices was that of the late C. C. Cox's Brombee stud flocks in April, 1872. This was the great Mudgee sale, where 8000 sheep brought about £20,000, the highest price being £125. In 1872 this was considered a very high price for, a sheep. Mr George Rouse, who attended this sale and bought largely, said at the luncheon ': —"Not many years ago £20 to £50 was thought a high price for a sheep ; but recent experience should encourage all sheep owners to go in for the best stud j sheep they could get, even at four times that cost." In 1874 when the famous Tasmanian ram Sir Thomas was put up for sale by auction in Melbourne, and bought by Messrs W. Cumming, in conjunction, for £714, breeders stared ; but late sales have proved that the proceeding was sensible, and the latest one has done more by showing that high prices for good stock are returned two fold.