Sheep Breeders' Association. 125 



must have something to eat, and in roving over the country hunt- 

 ing for something to eat, two or more get together and commence 

 to run stock and do such great damage. It is not always what 

 they kill that makes the big damage. I heard of one raid lately 

 where dogs killed six or seven sheep and damaged and crippled 

 about a hundred more in one flock. Every sheep in the flock is 

 seriously damaged in such a raid, and it sometimes takes weeks to 

 get them back where they were if they are ever as good and gentle 

 as before. 



Many times great damage is done to sheep by dogs hunting on 

 our farms and scaring the flock when the dog does not mean to do 

 damage. 



Now, in my judgment the best thing for Missouri farmers is 

 a flock of sheep on every farm. More sheep, better sheep and feiver 

 dogs. 



WHAT ORGANIZATION HAS DONE FOR THE MISSOURI 



SHEEP INDUSTRY. 



(M. V. Carroll, Secretary of Missouri Sheep Breeders' Association.) 



In this practical commercial age trees are judged by the fruit 

 they produce, men and organizations are estimated by their capacity 

 to do things, to show results. I am told by Missouri's pioneer 

 sheep breeders that many years ago — just how many was not stat- 

 ed — there was an organization of sheep men in this State, but what 

 became of it, what it accomplished or what the cause of its demise, 

 I am unable to state. Certain it is that the decade ending at 1906 

 was one of sepulchural quietude in Missouri so far as the sheep in- 

 dustry was concerned. True, there were a few courageous, enter- 

 prising sheep breeders here and there over the State whose opera- 

 tions, while measurably profitable, served largely to inspire curios- 

 ity among their sheepless neighbors. While Uncle Sam's census 

 compilers professed to find within the State a considerable number 

 of sheep each year, our wool production was so much a minus 

 quantity that the Yankee wool buyers would not concede that Mis- 

 souri was on the map. The Missouri State Fair held its first an- 

 nual exhibition in 1901, and possibly, with two or three exceptions, 

 the sheep display at its first five exhibitions came from other states 

 — Missouri sheep were conspicuous by their absence. 



In February, 1906, when our State Fair Board convened to 

 arrange its premium list, it was requested to provide special classes 



