No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 241 



SHEEP HUSBANDRY AND MUTTON PRODUCTION. 



By Pkop. Tho.s. I. Mairs, State College, Pa. 



No animal lias been so iutiniately associated with our religious, 

 social and political institutions as has the sbeep. From Abel to 

 Abraham, from Abraham to David, from David to Jesus, the history 

 of the Jews is the record of a shepherd race. From Syria to Greece, 

 from Greece to Italy, from Italy to Spain, and from Spain to 

 America, the ancestors of the ubiquitous Merino may be traced. 

 From Iceland to Australia, from Turkestan to Texas, wherever civ- 

 ilized man settles, sheep are sure to find their w^ay. Wool has 

 played a prominent part in the game of politics in both Europe and 

 America. 



Although the subject of this talk, Sheep Husbandry and Mutton 

 Production, seems to be a very broad one, no attempt will be made 

 to discuss wool-growing or the production of winter or hothouse 

 lambs. The latter is something of a specialty, and the demand for 

 the product is too limited to make it of general interest. Further, 

 it is said that cold storage lambs are to a great extent being sub- 

 stituted for the fresh dressed ones in season. Wool-growing, too, 

 is a specialty and involves certain technical knowledge which does 

 not properly belong to mutton production. The keeping of sheep 

 for wool alone is not practical in the eastern part of the United 

 States at the present time. 



A discussion of the relative merits of the different breeds will 

 not be entered into, as there is too much opportunity for a differ- 

 ence of opinion along this line. A general classification, as fine 

 wool breeds, coarse wool breeds, and medium wool breeds, will be 

 sufficient. 



Sheep breeders from the earliest times have given attention to 

 *he improvement of the fleece, but it was not until the time of 



kewell that any attempt was madf' to improve the oarcass. Prob- 

 ably the production of no class of live stock has varied more widely 

 in the last fifty years than has the production of sheep. Until 

 after the middle of the Nineteenth century practically all the sheep 

 produced in the T^^nited States were produced for w^ool. Mutton 

 was not regularly found in the meat markets. With the decline in 

 the price of wool came an attempt to utilize the sheep to better 

 advantage, which resulted in the consumption of larger quantities 

 of mutton and in the change of the type of sheep from the wool 

 to the mutton type. At one time it was stated that ninety-five 

 per cent, of the sheep in the United States were Merinos or Merino 

 grades. Now, east of the Missouri river the great majority of the 

 sheep contain more blood of the Down breeds than of the Merinos. 

 The Merino sheep have been compared in type to dairy cattle, the 

 Down breeds to beef cattle. The Delaines and Ramboullets may 

 be compared to the so-called dual purpose breeds of cattle. There 

 is, however, hardly the sharp distinction to be drawn among the 

 breeds of sheep that is possible among the breeds of cattle. West 

 16—6—1907. 



