stud

This photograph appears on page 171 of the book Yesterday's Tomorrows - the Powerhouse Museum and Its Precursors 1880 - 2005. Captioned: The highly folded skn and dense fleece of American Vermont sheep promised to greatly increase the Australian wool yield. Although they certainlhy contricuted in sone part to the Australian merion genotype, Vermont genes reduced the fineness of many flocks and increased susceptibility to blowfly strike." There is more about Vermont sheep and their wool on pages 172 - 174 of that book. More than a century of breeding has led these sheep to no longer have such pronounced wrinkling it seems. So this photograph is quite the historic curiosity of sheep breeding. Read a bit about it here: www.sheepmagazine.com/issues/28/28-6/Alan_Harman.html

Wonderful historic photos!

My first thought was that it was an old library card index storage.

Yes, it looked like a card index to me on the thumbnail. Beautifully made, possibly by Anthony Hordern's or Grace Bros who listed incubators in their mail order catalogues.

I think it says 'ANNUAL STUD ... ' and 'COMMONWEALTH' underneath? [squinting very hard]

... so I whacked "annual stud commonwealth" into Trove; narrowed it to the 1930s (from the car) and Sydney Morning Herald (photo by Sam Hood) and dear Trove found all these - trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?q=annual+stud+commonwea... . I think this may be a sale of sheep for the Commonwealth Wool and Produce Co. Ltd. The gents look fairly prosperous, rather than colourful racing identities (!). Or not?

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/51979177@N02] Pianist? [anticipating a Really Bad Joke ...]

beachcomber australia [http://www.flickr.com/photos/51979177@N02] Thanks BC! Amazing eyesight as usual!

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/51979177@N02] Ha!