In rearing lambs away from the mothers many perish; and besides, the shepherds object to raising pet lambs, if it could be avoided, because they are seldom good sheep; when turned out in the pasturage they become poverty stricken, still looking for the fostering hand that reared them.
At Narangullen a sheep-station, in the Murrumbidgee country, near Guadarigby, before the sheep discovered the spots in which the saline earth was situated, they brought forth the young in the usual manner, and the cleansings (if the delivery happened during the night) were found in the fold, and given as usual to the dogs; but when the earth was discovered, the lambs were attacked at birth, and the “cleansings” were devoured, if not timely removed by the shepherds.
At Darbylara (also situated on the banks of the Murrumbidgee river) Mr. Warby, who has a fine farm at that place, suffered such losses among his flocks from this cause, that he was obliged to sell those that remained; yet at Brungul, a station about eight miles distant, near the Tumat river, there was a small flock of sheep which had not shown any of this morbid appetite, and were in excellent condition.
On visiting Mr. Warby’s farm, the whole had the appearance of being excellent pasturage, and affording excellent sheep-runs; but about the pastures there were several pools of brackish water, to which the sheep resorted, and from which it was found at last impossible to keep them.
At this place again, although so destructive to breeding-ewes, rams, wethers, and ewes, not breeding, would fatten, and become in the finest condition, upon the same pasturage.
The sheep at these places eagerly devour the Azolla pinnata, which grows abundantly in the whole of the ponds and rivulets.
At Guadarigby I remarked that the cattle, after they had been turned out of the stock-yard, invariably came licking the ground about the huts. After some doubt as to the cause, it was found that the water in which salt-meat had been boiled, was thrown away about that place; and this it was that attracted the cattle: they would even attack one another to get at some places, which had been more impregnated with salt than another. This inclination of animals for salt is by no means adduced as any thing novel; it is not confined to those domesticated among the herbaceous, but also among the wild in that class of animals; for at Blowrin Flat, in the Tumat country, a water hole, nearly dry in some parts, and at others perfectly so, and similar to those I had before seen frequented by sheep, abounded in the tracks of the kangaroo; and, on a closer examination, the earth (which glittered in the sun, as if impregnated with saline particles) was licked and gnawed, as was done by sheep in other parts of the country; but it would be difficult to know whether similar results occurred with the breeding females of the kangaroos.
At Lomebraes, (about thirty miles from Goulburn Plains, on the road to Yas Plains,) the farm of Mr. John Hume, I was also informed that lambs and ewes had been lost, from similar causes to those I have been relating. The water of the river which runs through his farm in the summer season, when the stream is low, is hard, even so much so as to curdle the soap, and prevent any washing with it; but in the winter season, when the stream is increased, it becomes softer.
It is curious that Mr. Warby mentioned that a number of his cows had “slipped their calves,” or miscarried, and thought it proceeded from some poisonous herb they had eaten; but Mr. Hume mentioned that his cows, which are accustomed when breeding to devour the earth impregnated with saline particles, “slip their calves,” and he could attribute it to no other cause. This occurred also at the farms of Gonnong, Mut, mut, billy; and at all places where the same propensity of licking and gnawing the saline earth, and devouring the lambs, occurred among the ewes, “slipping the calves” occurred among the cows; but I heard nothing of their devouring the young.