Page:Diary of ten years.djvu/288

 270 40 or 50 lambs this season it will make up for the bad bargain.

Tuesday.—Three lambs were found in the fold this morning, and only one ewe with the appearance of being a mother. I have not known a sheep to have three lambs, yet this looks like it; one of them was dead in the morning. Took part of a stack of wheat into the barn to-day. It had suffered sadly from wet and mismanagement, in being badly thatched. It appears that the natives do not consider every frog fit for eating, for some of a greenish colour were under the stack, but they would not eat them, and said they lived above the waters, but the good ones lived in the ground. I had Weeip and two boys carrying wheat almost all day. Shot a duck upon the river to-day. White cockatoos are becoming very troublesome upon the wheat, as well as the crows. One is obliged to keep a boy to drive them away, or to make some contrivance to frighten them. We strike a long board smartly with a stick, the sound of which frightens them a little. It is singular to see a field spotted black and white with these depredators "piebalded."

Wednesday, June 24th.—The colony is now greatly in want of a few good practical shepherds. They would be sure of getting from 40s. to 60s. a month besides being fed. It is surprising how much the condition of the flock depends upon the goodness of the shepherd. Your part of the country not being a sheep country, I knew nothing of them before I came here, but have bought some experience since; and one chief lesson which I have learned is that in the summer time I can keep but a very small flock (perhaps not much more than 100) on the unassisted pasture of my grant, on this side of the hills; but at York my grant would probably feed more than 1000—for, whereas the area of my grazing grounds here is not much more than half a mile broad and a mile deep, the breadth of my grant there is two miles, and I am told the ground is good for an average of at least three miles back.