This Sum Is Heavy, Though I Do Not Exactly
Know Its Amount.
One dipping would not be ruinous, but there is always
a chance of some scabby sheep having been left upon the run unmustered,
and the flock thus becoming infected afresh, so that the whole work may
have to be done over again.
I perceive a sort of shudder to run through
a sheep farmer at the very name of this disease. There are no four
letters in the alphabet which he appears so mortally to detest, and with
good reason.
Another mode of investment highly spoken of is that of buying land and
laying it down in English grass, thus making a permanent estate of it.
But I fear this will not do for me, both because it requires a large
experience of things in general, which, as you well know, I do not
possess, and because I should want a greater capital than would be
required to start a run. More money is sunk, and the returns do not
appear to be so speedy. I cannot give you even a rough estimate of the
expenses of such a plan. I will only say that I have seen gentlemen who
are doing it, and who are confident of success, and these men bear the
reputation of being shrewd and business-like. I cannot doubt,
therefore, that it is both a good and safe investment of money. My
crude notion concerning it is, that it is more permanent and less
remunerative. In this I may be mistaken, but I am certain it is a thing
which might very easily be made a mess of by an inexperienced person;
whilst many men, who have known no more about sheep than I do, have made
ordinary sheep farming pay exceedingly well. I may perhaps as well say,
that land laid down in English grass is supposed to carry about five or
six sheep to the acre; some say more and some less. Doubtless, somewhat
will depend upon the nature of the soil, and as yet the experiment can
hardly be said to have been fully tried. As for farming as we do in
England, it is universally maintained that it does not pay; there seems
to be no discrepancy of opinion about this. Many try it, but most men
give it up. It appears as if it were only bona-fide labouring men who
can make it answer. The number of farms in the neighbourhood of Christ
Church seems at first to contradict this statement; but I believe the
fact to be, that these farms are chiefly in the hands of labouring men,
who had made a little money, bought land, and cultivated it themselves.
These men can do well, but those who have to buy labour cannot make it
answer. The difficulty lies in the high rate of wages.
February 13. - Since my last I have been paying a visit of a few days at
Kaiapoi, and made a short trip up to the Harewood Forest, near to which
the township of Oxford is situated.
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