The Sheep and Wool and Wool Industry of Australasia by Henry B Smith

Illustrated hard cover book in good condition - published by Whitcombe & Tombs 1917 - 186 pages - b/w photographs.

The sheep and wool industry of Australasia; a practical handbook for sheep farmers and wool-classers, with chapters on wool-buying and selling, sheep-skins, and kindred products

From The Book

What a history of fascinating romance surrounds the sheep and wool industry! It is woven into every department of our national and social life. It is Australasia's - and was once the main source of England's - national wealth, for woollen goods at the beginning of the eighteenth century formed two-thirds of England's exports.

The trade in wool has caused great wars and, what is more, has paid for them, which cannot be affirmed by many persons and things that have brought about international bloodshed. For centuries it was the pivot on which much diplomatic and political intrigue revolved, and kings and statesmen thought and dwelt in sheep and wool.

Australia is at the present time the leading sheep and wool-growing country in the world; it owes this position to the early pioneers who, with indomitable grit and courage, faced the Blacks, the droughts, the loneliness, and other dangers of the Australian bush, that only the stoutest hearts could survive.

At the present time there are numbers of sheep farmers carving out homes in the more unsettled parts of Australia's great continent, and undergoing a good many of the minor disadvantages of their brave pioneer forefathers.

I have often thought how valuable to them would be a well-illustrated and practical handbook, explaining in simple language the most suitable sheep for the various types of country in Australia, and the best methods of marketing wool.

In the following chapters I have endevoured to provide information useful to both the large station owner and the man grazing a few hundred sheep.

Interesting Old Book!!