TWENTIETH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART V 451 



be clothed. We hear men say, "Let the western range country care for 

 the wool and mutton production of the United States." This has been the 

 custom. You know we only produce 50 per cent of the normal require- 

 ments for the United States, and yet there are certain things in connec- 

 tion with the western range that are altering the production of wool and 

 mutton. 



The range is being taken up by homesteaders and devoted to grain 

 farming. The recent law providing that 640 acres may be filed on in- 

 stead of 160 has had a tendency to rapidly deplete the range; therefore 

 we can no longer look for the supply of wool and mutton that has marked 

 other years. 



Others say "Why not get our supply from Australia, New Zealand, South 

 America and China, where we already get 50 per cent of the nation's an- 

 nual needs?" The same conditions prevail in Australia that are to be 

 found in the West. The land is being taken up and devoted to cultivated 

 crops. 



It is interesting to note that in the seven years immediately preceding 

 the war the number of sheep in the United States decreased 12,000,000 

 head, while at the same time the population increased practically that 

 much. 



The per capita consumption of wool in this country is six pounds. 

 There is no satisfactory substitute for wool. Cotton is used in connection 

 with it but as a substitute it fails. So, there seems but one solution of 

 the problem confronting us and that is for grain belt farmers to take up 

 the production of wool. 



Recently the United States Department of Agriculture inaugurated an 

 educational campaign along the line of "A flock of sheep upon every farm." 

 It is estimated that the number of sheep on the farms of Iowa and other 

 Middle West states could be increased 150 per cent without seriously in- 

 terfering with the production of other live stock. 



We frequently hear it said that the price of wool is so high that it is 

 almost prohibitive; that it is no wonder the price of clothing has in- 

 creased 200 per cent. While in Chicago last summer I heard such re- 

 marks on numerous occasions. Let us consider it a moment. Who in 

 this audience can tell the exact cost of producing a pound of wool? I will 

 confess that, while I have raised sheep and dealt in wool practically all 

 my life, I don't know, and I doubt if there is a man here in this audience 

 that can tell the actual cost of producing a pound of wool. Therefore, 

 upon what do they base their assertions? 



The farmer as a business man is entitled to a reasonable profit over 

 the cost of production. Yet we are producing wool for what? We can 

 give neither the cost of production nor the price we are going to receive 

 for it, yet there is not another manufacturer — and that is what the farmer 

 is— that doesn't know the cost of production and the selling price of his 

 product. 



Barely eight pounds of wool are consumed in the manufacture of one 

 suit of clothes— approximately eight pounds. On the present market the 

 value of that wool is approximately 50 cents a pound, which would be $4. 

 If we were to make the woolen mills a present of that eight pounds how 



