352 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



by which we could best transport and convey the rough materials 

 which have been produced on the farms of the west. As farms 

 become smaller and our methods of farming more intensive, it will 

 be necessary for us to secure much higher prices for meat 

 products or greatly reduce the cost of production. Sheep are 

 economical producers. A pound of mutton may be produced for 

 about one-half the cost of producing a like amount of beef under 

 similar conditions. The sheep yields two crops a year — wool and 

 the lambs. Under many systems of extensive sheep husbandry 

 the wool pays the annual cost of feeding the ewe and the lamb is 

 profit. Sheep may be profitably handled on small farms intensively 

 managed. 



One other thing to which I would call your attention is, that 

 there has been a most remarkable decline in the numbers of sheep 

 in the world in the last ten or fifteen years. There has been a 

 reduction in ten years in certain European countries from 164 

 millions to 121 millions — a loss of 25 per cent in the number of 

 sheep. In this country we have had an increased production of 

 all of our domestic animals ; but sheep have increased more slowly 

 than any other animal on the farm. 



The demand for sheep and their products is greater today 

 than ever before. The consumption of mutton is greater and con- 

 stantly increasing. The demand for wools is likewise increasing. 

 These facts, taken in connection with the great decrease in num- 

 bers of sheep in Europe and a relatively slow increase in America 

 seem to point to the fact that the outlook for sheep husbandry is 

 very promising, and will undoubtedly continue to be a most profita 

 ble industry in this country for many years to come. 



WOOL STORAGE AND MARKETING. 



(J. A. Delfelder, Representative National Wool Growers' Association, Walton, Wyo.) 



The present methods of transacting business in any particular 

 channel of trade or industry are, in a greater or lesser degree, 

 accidental, and our present method of handling the Vv'ooi clip is 

 no exception to this general and well defined rule. 



As the fortunes of an individual are varied by accident, 

 energy and determination, so the methods of a great commercial 

 business are variously developed, in their growth and inception, 

 by their environments. 



