128 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



as well advocate using Texas cattle, or western cattle and western 

 ponies, and Arkansas hogs, and all that sort of thing; or, we might 

 just as well advocate cultivating inferior ground instead of good 

 ground. We had just as well advocate using inferior implements 

 to farm with, having inferior teams, and having inferior hands to 

 work our lands, having inferior teachers to teach our children, and 

 having inferior schools or any other thing of that kind. All these 

 things it seems to me are along the same line. I hold that we may 

 just as well feed a sheep that will produce a $10 lamb or a $5 lamb 

 or a $15 lamb as one that will produce a $3^ lamb, or one that 

 will produce twice as much wool as the other. Our land is too high 

 to use cheap material. We cannot afford to use cheap labor, cheap 

 teams, or cheap anything according to my way of thinking. Now, 

 I am not saying that a man should never use western ewes. If a 

 man has only $20 or $30 to put into sheep, and his farm will carry 

 12 sheep, then I think he can afford to buy a cheaper class of ewes; 

 but if he can afford it, if he has the money and can afford to use 

 a better grade of ewes, then I say use the best he can, and use 

 them all the time. I have never seen anything too good for the 

 farmer to use, provided he will take care of it. There is only one 

 thing I will say in regard to buying the best. If you don't take 

 care of them the cheap oaie will do you just as well as the best. But 

 I do not believe in breeding common stock of any kind. I don't 

 believe in inferior material of any kind. 



I advocate using western ewes for one reason : 

 There are not one-third as many sheep in this State as there 

 ought to be, and in order to have sheep on every farm where they 

 should be, I would almost advocate any kind of sheep. Get the 

 best grade of sheep you can afford, but get sheep. Then just as 

 soon as we can we should grade up and get better sheep. We need 

 more and better sheep worse than any other kind of live stock, 

 because the sheep industry in this State has been greatly neglected, 

 and there is not an industry — a live stock industry — in this State, 

 except that of poultry, that pays a bigger profit than sheep. Of 

 the live stock industries poultry comes first and sheep second; 

 they come nearer paying 100 per cent than any other. To all these 

 farmers who are not able to have the best sheep, I say get some 

 kind of sheep. Let's have more sheep on our farms, because they 

 pay. 



