FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 121 



STOCK AND DAIKY DAY. 



THURSDAY MORNING. 



HON. WM. BALL, CHAIRMAN OF THE DAY. 



ECONOMICAL METHODS OF SHEEP FEEDING. 



H. W. MUMPORD, AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



Fully realizing the condition of the sheep industry at present and the 

 position it has held for the past three or four years, it is with considerable 

 hesitancy that we shall attempt to speak to you for a few minutes on 

 ''Economic Methods of Sheep Feeding." However, when we come to look 

 back over the past and study the history of agriculture and the develop- 

 ment of this country, we are impressed with the idea that the sheep has 

 been a most potent factor. We find that many of the most prosperous 

 and wealthy farmers of the United States, and especially of Michigan, 

 have become so largely through their identification with sheep farming, 

 and it seems almost a pity that we should desert those who have been 

 such staunch friends of the farmer, because of some temporary adverse 

 conditions. 



There is one thing with agricultural papers that always seemed to 

 me radically ''out of joint," if I may be allowed the expression, for we find 

 that when one farming operation appears to pay better than any other, 

 the farm papers at once and with one accord devote the larger part of 

 their columns to that industry, while those industries of the farm which 

 can only be made to pay a profit by observing the most strict methods 

 of economy are almost, if not entirely, crowded out. While, in reality, 

 if ever we should know of the best methods, the methods of the most suc- 

 cessful, it is when conditions make it difficult to secure profitable returns 

 for labor and money invested. 



It is but justice to the speaker in opening a discussion of this nature to 

 say that different sheep feeders pursue different methods. One man 

 feeds his sheep certain food stuffs in a certain manner and is very suc- 

 cessful, and his neighbor may follow slightly or considerably different 

 methods and be equally successful, and when it comes to grains, it is 

 impossible to say that any one grain or fodder is the most economical 

 food ration for all seasons and under all conditions, for we find that much 

 depends upon the relative market values of the different foods. 



Then, too, we should not overlook the fact that the food consumed is 

 not the only essential factor which enters into the economical production 

 of mutton. The place they are fed, the sheep themselves and the manner 

 in which they are fed all have a direct bearing on nie subject. 



