EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 201 



few years when the man who has a flock of either mutton or wool sheep of good quality, 

 who pursues careful and painstaking methods in handling them, will fail to secure a net 

 profit. 



There is a promising outlook for the American farmer who economically produces 

 wool and mutton. I doubt if we shall again see the time when the flock master can 

 secure a net profit from his flock unless he makes a thorough study of the industry, 

 knows what he is trying to do, and how he is to accomplish his ends, and is willing 

 to settle upon a policy of breeding and rigidly adhere to it. 



May I venture to suggest here that one of the greatest sources of loss to the American 

 farmer has been his vacillating from one line of breeding to another, from one 

 rotation of crops to another, and from one system of farming to another. 



Use all of the means at hand to decide the wisest line of sheep husbandry to pursue 

 under your conditions, and then do not deviate from it without the best of reasons. 

 Remember that a constant, persistent and settled policy is best. 



In connection with this subject the question naturally arises, — Can sheep husbandry 

 be made profitable by disregarding entirely the wool product? In some few favored 

 localities such a course of sheep husbandry may be made profitable, but under ordi- 

 nary conditions the wool product contributes materially to the net income from the 

 flock. In some instances breeders of mutton sheep have realized as much for their 

 wool as the men who have been keeping sheep fjrimarily for the wool which they 

 produce. In making such a claim it should not be forgotten that the American markets 

 in the past have not been glutted with a large supply of the medium and coarse grades 

 of wool, while the scarcity of fine wools, owing to the common stock of the country 

 being largely Merino grades, has not been apparent until within the past few months, 

 although a few of the breeders of Merino sheep have persistently proi^hesied that 

 former conditions would return, and that the grading up of flocks for the production 

 of the finer giades of wool would again profitably engage the attention of American 

 sheep men. 



Fashion in the manufacture of woolen fabrics, which has always been a potent factor 

 in the price of diflferent grades of wool, has seemed to encourage the growth of medium 

 and coarse wools. While the future of the wool industry will be settled by conditions 

 almost entirely beyond the control of the growers of this country, still everything 

 points to a brighter prospect for the wool grower than for several years past, and 

 especially for the producer of Fine Delaine wools. 



WORLD'S WOOL PRODUCTION. 



The number of sheep in the world in 1894, according to S. N. D. North, was 571. 

 163,062, and the amount of wool produced from the above sheep was 2,692,986,773 

 pounds, showing the average weight of fleece per head to be 4.7 pounds. 



WOOL PRODUCT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



From the same authority we learn that in the United States, during the same 

 year, there were 45,084,017 sheep, producing 325,210,712 pounds of wool. By this we 

 see the United States produces about one-eighth of the world's sujjply of wool. The 

 average weight of fleece in the United States is 7.21 pounds; over two poimds per 

 head above the world's average. 



For the last twenty years the number of sheep in the United States has varied from 

 approximately 40,000,000 to 50,000,000: the latter figure was exceeded in 1884, while 

 in 1894 the number was estimated at 45,048,017. 



Current prices for wool and mutton, combined with other coTulitions, which have 

 made the production of one or the other of these products unprofitable, have caused 

 this variation in the number of sheep kept and a similar variation in the amount of 

 the mutton and wool produced. It has not been due to an over production of wool, for 

 statistics show that never has home grown wool excelled or even equalled the con- 

 sumption of wool in the United States. 



No one can consistently say that we ought not to produce at home every pound of 

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