Live Stock Breeders' Association. 209 



have raised several lots of lambs ; then there is the wool, w^hich is 

 commanding a good price and which is harvested in the spring of 

 the year, so to speak, when the farmer has the least to sell from 

 any other source, and as our wealth and population increases, 

 greater is the demand for the best of woolen goods. Good, warm 

 flannels are and always have been one of the first and most 

 essential things in man's infancy, and as we pass the prime of life 

 and enter our second childhood and these old, frail and decaying 

 bodies become rheumatic, there is nothing that revives, stimulates 

 and makes us feel like the spring of life more than the good old flan- 

 nel shirt. And last, but not least, is the constant improvement of the 

 land which sheep, with their "golden hoof" and rich manure, never 

 fail to bring to the tired and worn out cultivated field. Sheep is 

 the one hundred per cent profit animal, whether it be grazing on 

 the rocks of the Ozarks, or on the rich and rolling blue grass pas- 

 tures, or fertile fields of this great State of ours; and there is 

 nothing that beautifies, or excites the artistic eye or makes the farm 

 more attractive and pleasant than a well cared for flock of sheep. 

 It is not my intention to tire you with dry figures of what some in- 

 dividual has done in the sheep business to prove that the sheep is 

 the one hundred per cent profit animal, but if there is a "doubting 

 Thomas" here, if he will come to me personally, I will prove to him, 

 beyond a doubt, that the sheep, properly cared for, is the most profit- 

 able animal that walks upon the face of this green earth. 



BRIGHT PROSPECTS. 



The shepherd's star never shown brighter in the State of Mis- 

 souri than it does today. There is every encouragement for a pros- 

 pective shepherd to start in the sheep business. If you have never 

 had any experience in the business, let me warn you to go easy, and 

 buy few ewes and figure on improving in the future. One of the 

 principles of success is to raise each year lambs that are better 

 individuals than their mothers. Have your ideal. You know the 

 ones that answer to the accepted type and to your ideal. Study 

 your flock ; you know the ones that raise the best lambs and shear 

 the heaviest fleece, you learn to discard the coarse head, the heavy 

 ear, the long leg, the cloudy wool and dark skin. Hold on to the 

 ones that conform the nearest to your ideal, and the most essential 

 and important part is good care. As some one has said, "A wise 

 shepherd feeds his lambs a month before he sees them and the fool- 

 ish shepherd a month afterward." I want to impress upon the 



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