coal-growing
at a profit, unless the market-price should be considerably raised.
This, however, cannot last: the balance of 1 ibour will ere long be
restored, from the immense rush of men from all the neighbouring
colonics to the gold mines. The unuccessful there will be glad to
return to their old occupations, and a temporary inconvenience will,
perhaps, be all that . will be felt. In ordinary times, the wages of
the shepherd are from 18l. to 22/. From 25/. to 35/. have,
however, been frequently given, and this is exclusive of rations,
viz., 1 Olbs. of beef or mutton, 10 lbs. of flour, 2 lbs. of sugar,
quarter of a pound often, with sufficient salt. This is the weekly
allowance to the men. In addition to which, they have generally the use
of a milch cow, and it is their own fault if they have not a garden and
poultry. Agricultural labourers in England may judge of the condition
of Australian shepherds in comparison with their own at home, where the
Dorsetshire or Buckinghamshire labourer has to keep himself and family
on seven shillings a week. Many New South Wales shepherds are also
small stockholders. They have every opportunity of saving their wages,
and many avail themselves of it, investing these in sheep, to become
eventually flocks of their own. Any industrious and intelligent young
man may, if he please, become in time a flockmaster, even if he did not
land with a shilling in his pocket. The process is a certain one.,
which nothing but his depth, or neglect of his own interests, can stop,
and the field for his exertions is illimitable.
The wool is the first profit of the farm, and fetches in the Sydney market from Is. to Is. 3d. per
lb. according to quality, always meeting with immediate sale, or rather
with immediate competition amongst the merchants to get it. The next
profit is the sale of the old ewes and the wethers to the butcher, or
for boiling down for the sake of the tallow. Old ewes, like wethers,
are kept in a separate flock, and soon fatten, if not permitted to
breed. Wethers are generally sold at three years old, but are sometimes
kept till four years old for the purposes of the butcher, the meat
being better, and the wool will pay
r
