196 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



and the manure has been hauled and well distributed over the land it 

 will always retain its fertility and will get better every year instead of 

 worse. From my own experience it pays best to feed it to sheep. They 

 return more pounds of gain for the amount of food consumed than 

 cattle or hogs. Besides, mutton brings more per pound than beef or 

 pork and furnishes better manure than either. 



My sheep have gained me from start of feeding to finish 8 to lo 

 pounds of mutton per bushel of corn, while the gain of my cattle of 

 equal quality and feed runs from 7 to 8 pounds. My hogs eat corn, 

 corn from first to last and only a little grass for change, while my 

 sheep eat grass, grass from first to last and only a little corn to start 

 lambs and to finish them. That is the cheap feed vs. high-priced feed. 



I find from my shipping bills, which I have saved for 25 years, 

 from 1873 to 1898, that the average price received for my stock in 

 Chicago during that period was $4.93 per 100 pounds for sheep, $4.86 

 for steers and $4.85 for hogs, and the average weight was, sheep 126^ 

 pounds, steers, 1,354 pounds, and hogs 218^^2 pounds. From this you 

 can see they had to be all of good stock to average that weight. 



The foregoing facts, obtained from my experience, convince me 

 that sheep are, in general, the most profitable stock on a farm, espe- 

 cially on thin and high land. In conclusion, I will say, keep none but 

 the best of whatever breed you have. They will pay when poor ones 

 lose. Sheep are easy to handle and easy to retain in an iuclosure that 

 would not hold other stock, and they are the best weed destroyers on 

 the farm. Taking all things into consideration the sheep certainly has 

 much to commend it to the farmer. 



DISCUSSION OF MR. ZIEGLER's PAPER. 



Mr. Ziegler : Last year I had some ewes that I wanted to dis- 

 pose of. I generally market them along in April or ^lay, and the idea 

 struck me that I would try a new plan. I took the ewes and bred 

 them in July. I had 45 of then: ansi wanted to dispt^'Se of them. I 

 bred them in July and was successful in getting in December, fifty 

 lambs. I fed the ewes well on corn, oats and clover hay. I fixed a 

 little space off in the barn for the lambs and gave them bran and corn. 

 I fed them three months and shipped them to Chicago the Monday be- 

 for Easter. Those lambs weighed 55 pounds when I sold them in 

 Chicago for twelve cents per pound, or $6.60 apiece, I might say. I 

 knew that the ewes were in good condition, so I kept the owes and 

 sold them along in May, realizing $5 a hundred for the ewes. This 

 country down here in Southern ^lissouri strikes me as a good place 

 to raise lambs. 



