THE LAND OF THE GOLDEN FLEECE
There were large flocks in the days of the patriarchs, when Abraham
and Lot had to separate to get new grazing grounds. It is written that
King Solomon sacrificed one hundred and twenty thousand sheep when
he dedicated the Temple at Jerusalem, and we know that Mesha, King
of Moab, gave Jehoram, King of Israel, one hundred thousand lambs as
tribute. We have read also of Job’s “cattle upon a thousand hills.”
The sheep kings of those days must have had immense farms, but they
were nothing in comparison with those of Australia. In the state of
Victoria there are six sheep stations of more than one hundred thousand
acres each; in New South Wales are nearly two hundred of like area, and
Queensland has ranches so extensive that one will support upward of one
hundred and forty thousand sheep. In the whole Commonwealth there are
eighteen estates carrying more than one hundred thousand head each.
Yet, even at that, there are old timers who consider these farms small.
In the early days, when land was taken up in great parcels at less than
nominal rates, there were men who acquired tracts the size of the state
of Rhode Island. James Tyson, one of the most noted of the stock kings,
owned three million acres and died worth twenty millions of dollars,
an unheard-of fortune at that time. Samuel McCaughey, who came to
Australia practically penniless in 1856, when sheep raising was on the
decline because of the gold fever, picked up blocks of land and bought
flocks of sheep until he finally had one million head, owned a million
acres outright, and leased a million or so besides. At one shearing he
clipped a million and a quarter pounds of wool.
Nowadays the tendency is away from these enormous holdings. With a view
to getting more people on the land, all the state governments have
done something toward their reduction. Moreover, closer settlement
frequently means greater production from the land, for the smaller
holdings are not generally devoted to sheep alone, but are used for
wheat growing, dairying, and other farming as well. In districts where
at one time a property of two hundred thousand acres was thought
not too large to provide for one man and his family, five thousand
acres is now considered a good pastoral proposition. Sometimes a
five-thousand-acre farm, well cultivated and improved, pays better than
two hundred thousand acres did in the past.
The sheep ranches used to be merely wild lands, where flocks were
grazed on the hills and valleys with a few shepherds to watch them.
The present sheep stations are more like farms. The land is fenced in
great fields, or paddocks, of eight hundred acres or more. Some contain
several thousand acres, and single paddocks may have from two to twenty
thousand sheep. Our American consul at Sydney tells me of one station
he visited, which had wire fencing enough to reach from New York to San
Francisco, enough roads to make a highway from New York to Baltimore,
and enough employees to populate a good-sized town. I have travelled
over other stations quite as large, and I have been amazed at the vast
extent of the fencing.
[Illustration: In the great “back blocks,” where sheep ranches of
100,000 acres are common, it takes days and even weeks for the bullock
drivers and their teams to get the wool clip to the nearest railroad.]
[Illustration: The Australian sheep men have brought the Merino to its
highest perfection and doubled the weight of its average fleece since
the breed was first introduced.]
[Illustration: Though the snowfall is confined to a few isolated areas,
the slopes of Mount Kosciusko, which is more than seven thousand feet
high and the loftiest peak on the continent, are the scenes of real
winter sports.]
[Illustration: Even about the winter’s ice on the mountain lakes of
Victoria the trees are as green as in the spring, for the eucalyptus
sheds its bark instead of its leaves and makes the country an
“evergreen land.”]
In the state of New South Wales, where I am now writing, practically
all its thirty-four million sheep are kept in fenced paddocks. There
are thousands of miles of wire netting put up to keep out wild dogs and
rabbits. Millions of dollars have been invested in buildings, and the
salary list of a great station may be as long as that of a department
store. Sheep raising is by no means a cheap business and to make it pay
everything must be carefully managed.
It costs from fifteen to twenty thousand dollars a year to run even
a good-sized station and there are some ranches on which the annual
expenses mount up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Of late years
wages have steadily increased, until the men are now paid from five to
nine dollars a week with board and lodging. Each man receives weekly
about twelve pounds of meat, ten pounds of flour, and a quarter of a
pound of tea, as well as other rations, so that every big farm must
keep a store and a warehouse. Even the smaller stations have a dozen
or more men in ordinary times, and at shearing season the hands are
numbered by scores. Then there is the land itself, which, when taken in
tracts of tens of thousands of acres, costs the purchaser or tenant a
large sum of money. The rates for leases are different in the several
states, but in all there are farms paying annual rents of thousands of
dollars.
The ranchers are called “squatters,” which in Australia is not a
disparaging term, as with us. It was first applied to those who settled
on unoccupied lands, and then to those leasing vast tracts from the
government at nominal rentals. Since these men often grew to be
rich, the title became a complimentary one and it is now applied to
stock-owners and graziers generally.
The squatters are Jasons who have won a splendid Golden Fleece. Of the
five hundred and fifty million sheep in the world, Australia has around
eighty million, or more than any other country. Russia, Argentina, and
South Africa come next, in the order named. Australia’s yearly wool
production runs to between six and seven hundred million pounds and her
annual wool exports have been bringing her the sum of two hundred and
fifty million dollars. Wool is her greatest single source of wealth.
Her sheep also furnish exports of frozen mutton that in good years have
increased her income by twenty-five million dollars. The annual exports
of sheepskins are sometimes worth fifteen million dollars, and sausage
casings, made of the intestines of sheep and lambs, are sent overseas
to the value of five hundred thousand dollars.
During my stay here I have attended Sydney’s annual sheep show. There
were hundreds of fine animals from every part of Australia. More than
half of them were entered in the fine-wool class, and the rest were
fat sheep raised for mutton. Every sheep at the show was worth several
hundred dollars, and some were valued at thousands. Among the latter
was the ram that took first prize. It was a great barrel-shaped bale of
wool with a pair of big horns at one end of it. The wool lay on the ram
in folds and rolls, the skin apparently wrinkling itself in order that
the animal might hold more. His ears were entirely hidden by the wool,
which also came out three inches over the eyes, leaving only small
holes for the ram to see through. I poked my finger into the fleece
and could just touch the skin. The wool hung down in great bunches on
the belly and the legs were covered clear to the hoofs. On the outside
the fleece was of a dirty white colour, but when I pulled it apart I
could see it was of a rich creamy white. The strands were spiral and
springy and very fine.
The Australian farmers pay more for blooded sheep than do those of any
other country. It is not uncommon for a well-bred ram to sell for five
thousand dollars and one has even brought more than thirty thousand
dollars.
The hundreds of sheep men at the show looked much like a crowd of
Yankee business men. They were all landholders, and many had farms
which would be considered principalities in the United States, but some
of which are looked upon as quite small here. For instance, at the
dinner closing the event I asked whether the vice-president of the show
had a large station. The reply was that he had not, for his holdings
comprised only about sixty-five thousand acres. Another man pointed out
to me owns two hundred thousand acres and another has half a million
acres, all fenced.