The capital, which I have assumed as requisite for the produce and management of 3500 ewes, at six shillings each, is £1700. (see page 138); and the annual average profit being £376, the clear gain would be at the rate of about twenty-two per cent yearly, according to the data I have based this hasty calculation on. The flocks would always continue as valuable as the original ones, for the more aged ewes, would be of course replaced by young ones, before the former had at all deteriorated in condition. I think that the Australian colonies will always be able to compete advantageously with other countries in the production of wool and tallow. The extensive plains of South America, are certainly eminently qualified for the rearing of sheep, and at present swarm with herds of cattle; but, notwithstanding its comparative vicinity to England, the unsettled state of that continent, and the difference of duty[1] turn the scale infinitely in favour of Australia. As to Southern Africa and the Cape of Good Hope, the sheep in that colony are very inferior to New South Wales; and the expenses attending their management, and the risk of loss, are inconceivably greater, in consequence of the vast number of ferocious beasts of prey, with which that part of the globe is infested. The Cape will never therefore rival Australia in the production of wool and tallow.
In the latest edition of the Encyclopædia Bri-
- ↑ The duty on foreign tallow is 3s. 2d. per cwt., and from British possessions only 3d. per cwt.
