208 Missouri Acjrindtural Rejiort. 



flocks. Sir J. B. Lawes, the first agricultural experimenter in Lhe 

 world, in the reports of his work of more than fifty years proved 

 that sheep may be made to yield fifty per cent more profit than any 

 other animal. 



A well fed flock of sheep is the most profitable property a 

 farmer can own. It is sometimes said that the dairy cow is this. 

 If that be true, why is it that the number of sheep has increased 

 over three millions in Great Britain in the last few years, until now 

 there are over three hundred sheep to every square mile? Sheep 

 raising is looked upon by many as a primitive industry, suited only 

 to poor lands and undeveloped agriculture. If sheep were suited 

 only to rough and waste lands, why is it that in Great Britian :the 

 tenant looks upon his sheep as the surest rent payer on land that 

 is worth from three to five hundred dollars per acre? The sheep 

 business has passed the primitive stage. We can count on a well 

 established and increasing demand for our mutton products. The 

 people of the country, and in fact the consumers of all the American 

 Packers' products, are demanding more mutton, and those who 

 never ate the flesh of the sheep before, once having tasted its fine 

 flavor and discovered its high nutritious value, are becoming steady 

 consumers of it, and not only is this the case, but when this best 

 of all fresh meat is introduced it stays and the demand for it in- 

 creases. We have always advocated that any farmer in our State 

 can keep a small flock with satisfactory success. Failures in the 

 keeping of sheep invariably happen in having too large a flock to 

 begin with, for if one is able to keep successfully a small flock, 

 which any person with good judgment and good common sense 

 may do, is no reason that he can keep a thousand with the same 

 success, for in all arts appertaining to agriculture there is no 

 branch so difficult to become proficient in as the shepherd's art. 

 This does not apply to sheep alone. Let any man overstock the 

 capacity of his farm with hogs or cattle, and disaster is sure to 

 follow. 



In my thirty years of experience in the sheep business I have 

 always found that my sheep have always made me more profit for 

 the feed consumed and the capital invested than any other stock. 

 I have made one hundred and fifty per cent profit on grade ewes 

 raising early lambs for the Easter market. 



MANIFOLD SOURCES OP PROFIT. 



Sheep in fact turn into money in various ways : First is the 

 meat, whether from hot house lambs, ripe weather or fat ewes that 



