392 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



Second, That tliis mar be a true statement of the condition of the wool 

 industry of Michigan in the year 1899. In order to understand the pres- 

 ent condition of the wool industry in Michigan it will be necessary to 

 review somewhat briefly the methods which have been pursued by sheep 

 men in general for the last ten years or more. 



For several years back the sheep raisers have paid little or no attention 

 to the product of their flocks. The very fact that wool has been so low in 

 price has led many a sheep owner to lose his interest in the wool industry, 

 and when, added to this, we have observed the relatively high price for 

 mutton, we do not wonder that the wool industry has received so little 

 consideration. The wonder is that any one should continue to breed 

 sheep for the primary object of producing wool. So far as we know% there 

 is not a country in the world which has ever been noted for its wool 

 product that has not suffered more or less from the effects of low wool 

 and high mutton. 



However, a very potent factor has been that, notwithstanding the loss 

 of interest in the w^ool product by a large majority of men, there has been 

 a few who were giving attention to this subject and still continued to 

 breed mutton sheep, arguing, and wath some degree of correctness, that 

 they could produce as much value in fleece from the purely bred mutton 

 sheep as a Merino breeder could produce from his Merino flocks. 



We say with some degree of correctness during the first few years of 

 the introduction of English mutton sheep in America and other coun- 

 tries, a very large proportion of the sheep throughout the country were 

 high grade Merinos, and consequently there was a large percentage of 

 fine w ool to be sold on the market and relatively a very small percentage 

 of medium and coarse wools. Naturally enough there was a good demand 

 for medium and coarse grades of wool and a special call for fine wool, 

 which would tend to decrease the breeding of Merino sheep and the in- 

 creasing of breeding the mutton types. And this, looking at the subject 

 from the standpoint of the production of wool only. We see. then, how 

 the flocks of our State and other states have gradually, though surely, 

 changed from high grade Merinos to high grades of the difl'erent varieties 

 of English mutton sheep. 



Fashion, too, which has always played such an important part in the 

 wool industry, has, from time to time, caused a variation in the price 

 of the different grades of wool when there has been no other apparent 

 reason for the high and low price of certain grades of wool. 



Now that there promises to be better prices paid for the dilferent grades 

 of fine wool, we observe quite a general sentiment among sheep men to re- 

 turn to the use of Merino rams on the grade flocks of the country. If they 

 are not already doing this, they are planning to do so in the near future. 



The wool grower is not unlike other men in that he is anxious to get 

 the best possible returns from the money he has invested in his flocks. If 

 he imagines that he can increase the value of the wool })roduct by a 

 change in the breeding methods, or even of breeds, he will do it, and no 

 amount of philosophy will stop him. 



We have spoken briefly of the circumstances which have led up to the 

 present condition of our Michigan flocks and incidentally of the wool 

 product. Let us now consider a little more in detail just what this con- 

 dition is. I presume if we were to start out today and canvass carefully 

 the wool buyers of Michigan we would find that not one-third of the woo? 



