1870
8 September 1870
Mr. Atkinson's station and washing and scouring plant, nine miles down from Mudgee, on Slasher's Flat, are well worth a visit - we proceed as before. There are here two ugly crossings which require bridges, the one through the Cudgegong being particularly awkward, owing to the shifty character of that useful river, which scours out a ford entirely without notice and converts it into a deep hole, into which the luckless horse plunges headlong. As there is a considerable traffic to the Macquarie and the Castlereagh on this road, something really ought to be done to prevent any more occurrences of deaths by drowning. Messrs. Atkinson and Brown have some very fine Leicesters and Cotswolds here, the rams weighing as much as 1801b, and the ewes 1601b (alive.) The rams fleeces weigh, scoured, from 10lb to 12lb, averaging 16d to 18d a lb, and the ewes average 6lb. These woolly monsters dwarfed the Merinos to mere hoggets and lambs beside them, and seemed curiously endowed to show a liking for the horehound which grew abundantly around. It is a remarkable law of nature which causes horehound, or nettles, or trefoil burr, to follow and spring up in the wake of the sheep. There was a discussion in another colony once upon the subject of the thistle and its engrossing powers. After a long argument, it was settled by a woman, who was a splendid English linguist, saying she was convinced that every Scotchman brought them with him. "But hoo, woman, hoo?" indignantly demanded one of the debaters. "Why they bring the seeds in their hair!" (Confusion and cries of shame!) Whether the sheep import stinging nettles, horehound, and trefoil in their hair, or whether they are the result of sheep manure acting on special soils, under different chemical and climatic influences, I don't know, but incline to the latter idea, because though sheep are common to all parts of the colony weeds are not, but occupy, I have noticed special districts in it.
The wool of the Cotswold is wavy, but comparatively coarse and wanting in the serrations which appear to be the exclusive property of the highly-prized Spanish wool.
The washing and scouring apparatus is planted on the north bank of a splendid waterhole in the Cudgegong River, the engine being a ten-horse power portable one, of Clayton and Shuttleworth's. The tube which supplies the ten spouts is two feet ten inches in diameter, and fifty-one feet long, employing ten washers, and keeping a ten-inch centrifugal pump going. Most of the gear, liable to breakage, is in duplicate, and worked last year eight months without an hour's delay. The working of this very useful establishment appears to have given general satisfaction, which the moderate charge of l½d per lb, will not, I should say, impair. The process is as follows: 1st weighed, 2nd sorted, 3rd discharged into 600 gallon oval barrels, steamed for half an hour, then turned out into baskets standing in tubs, and washed till perfectly clean, then turned out upon sheets to dry in the air.
The waterhole in question is 300 yards long, 30 yards wide, and 20 feet deep.
The receiving shed is sixty by forty, with loft over, and outside has a simple but useful stage for loading wool, being a long inclined plane of slabs six feet wide, and six feet high, at one end, on a frame supported by two posts. The bales are rolled up this stage and thence on to the waggon, thus avoiding the ordinary and dangerous method by which men have been known to be crushed to death.
The firm's washing apparatus is also complete by the hot water process; the soak tank accomodating nine sheep at a time. Their prices realized are 17d to 30½d, average 23½d. Mr. Atkinson makes use of a good and simple sheep-proof fence, in the shape of upright slabs, set close, fifteen inches in the ground and four feet out of it. It stands well, is easily repaired, and costs 4s 6d a rod1
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