Sheep At Eight Years Old Will Be In Their Old Age:
They will
live nine or ten years - sometimes more, but an eight-year-old sheep
would be what is
Called a broken-mouthed creature; that is to say, it
would have lost some of its teeth from old age, and would generally be
found to crawl along at the tail end of the mob; so that of the 2582
sheep returned to me, 500 would be very old, 200 would be seven years
old, 200 six years old. All these would pass as old sheep, and not
fetch very much; one might get about 15s. a head for the lot all round.
Perhaps, however, you might sell the 200 six years old with the younger
ones. Not to overestimate, count these 700 old sheep as worth nothing
at all, and consider that I have 1800 sheep in prime order, reckoning
the lambs as sheep (a weaned lamb being worth nearly as much as a full-
grown sheep). Suppose these sheep to have gone down in value from 25s.
a head to 10s., and at the end of my term I realise 900 pounds. Suppose
that of the wool money I have only spent 62 pounds 10s. per annum, i.e.
ten per cent on the original outlay, and that I have laid by the
remainder of the wool money. I shall have from the wool money a surplus
of 630 pounds (some of which should have been making ten per cent
interest for some time); that is to say, my total receipts for the sheep
should be at the least 1530 pounds. Say that the capital had only
doubled itself in the seven years, the investment could not be
considered a bad one. The above is a bona-fide statement of one of the
commonest methods of investing money in sheep. I cannot think from all
I have heard that sheep will be lower than 10s. a head, still some place
the minimum value as low as 6s. {3}
The question arises, What is to be done with one's money when the term
is out? I cannot answer; yet surely the colony cannot be quite used up
in seven years, and one can hardly suppose but that, even in that
advanced state of the settlement, means will not be found of investing a
few thousand pounds to advantage.
The general recommendation which I receive is to buy the goodwill of a
run; this cannot be done under about 100 pounds for every thousand
acres. Thus, a run of 20,000 acres will be worth 2000 pounds. Still,
if a man has sufficient capital to stock it well at once, it will pay
him, even at this price. We will suppose the run to carry 10,000 sheep.
The wool money from these should be 2500 pounds per annum. If a man can
start with 2000 ewes, it will not be long before he finds himself worth
10,000 sheep.
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