Features of the Sheep Industries of United States, New Zealand, and Australia Compared

Excerpts from the Introduction: American sheep raisers have not remained wholly unacquainted with the ideas and practices of Australian flock masters. During the past year lectures delivered in western States have done much to familiarize sheep raisers with the very efficient Australasian system of getting wool from the sheep to the mill. For some years persons connected with the wool trade have made it clear that in many phases of sheep raising, especially that of preparing wool for market, American methods compare very poorly with those followed in Australasia. With conditions as they are at present, when sheep raising contains so much of promise and also of uncertainty, it is well to have at hand as much information as possible regarding the fundamental principles that have so firmly established the sheep industry in Australasia and made these far-off countries so prominent for both quantity and quality in the world’s wool trade. Because of these considerations, the impressions gained from a comparatively rapid view of sheep and wool matters in New Zealand and Australia by one having the American viewpoint have been prepared for publication.