2lX) STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



THE PRODUCTION AND MARKETING OF WOOL. 



Diirinj; the past six or eight years we have been impressed with the fact that but 

 vt'iy few fanners in Michigan, even among those who keep sheep, have been paying 

 much attention to the wool product of their (locks. Flock owners have rightfully 

 complained of the low prices for all grades of wool without having confidpn''e enough 

 in the future to apply their intelligence and energj' toward the improvement of their 

 flocks along wool-bearing lines. It is safe to say that very much the same condition 

 exists throughout the United States. 



Present conditions point to a more satisfactory market, especiallj' for some grades 

 of wool. It seems, therefore, that this is an opportune time to place before our farming 

 ])opulation a few investigations recently made by the writer concerning the wool 

 industry, together with certain facts relating to the growth of wools. 



CAN THE KEEPING OF SHEEP FOR THE PRODUCTION OF WOOL ALONE 



BE IVIADE PROFITABLE? 



It is very doubtful whether the time will ever come when the keeping of sheep 

 for the production of wool alone can be made profitable in Michigan or in many 

 localities in the United States. 



Wool growing upon such a basis must, in the future, be confined to localities 

 remote from the great meat consuming centers, where farmers are unprovided with 

 rapid transportation to these centers, or where the cost of transportation of mutton 

 would be so high as to render the carcass of little or no value. 



A moment's consideration would suggest that wool growing uhder such conditions 

 could only be made profitable upon cheap lands where the herding of large flocks 

 would be possible and where the climate and other conditions would be favorable 

 to the development of sheep and the healthy growth of the wool fiber. 



We can conceive how present conditions might be so changed as to vender sheep 

 husbandry profitable, if the wool product only were taken into account. It is not 

 probable, however, that we shall ever see a repetition of conditions which existed earlier 

 in this century. It is not probable that the price of the finer grades of wool will go 

 ■io high that the breeder, even of that class of sheep, can afford to entirely overlook the 

 ultimate value of the carcass for the block. 



We expect to see, in the future more than in the past, two classes of sheep raisers 

 in Michigan and throughout the United States. One class will keep sheep for the 

 primary object of producing mutton, with wool as a secondary or incidental product; 

 the other will aim to produce wool first and the mutton second. Whether the produc- 

 tion of wool or mutton should be the aim of the breeder will de])end upon his personal 

 preference and upon his capacity. Some sheep raisers will prefer the mutton breeds, 

 others the Merino. 



The great mass of sheep owners will vacillate from breeding grades of the one to 

 breeding grades of the other as conditions favorable to the production of wool or mutton 

 at the time seem to render the one or the other more profitable. 



It is not hard to see that the ranchman who can run large flocks of sheep in bands, 

 and who has at his command an almost unlimited grazing ground, can produce wool 

 nore economically that the general farmer who keeps a flock and looks upon it simply as 

 an incidental contributor to his income. 



The owners of small flocks, then, soonest feel the eft'ects of depression and are most 

 apt to quickly dispose of their flocks after one or two unprofitable years. 



A careful study of the following pages of this Bulletin will, I trust, impress upon 

 the minds of flock owners the desirability of choosing one or the other of these lines 

 of sheep husbandry and adhering to it year after year. 



Not until the wool growers of this country are content to do this will the sheep 

 industry, viewing it either from the purely wool producing or the mutton producing 

 standpoint, ever take its place in the front rank of the great sheep growing countries 

 of the world. 



We believe future conditions will bear us out in the statement that there will be very 



