470 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



other domestic animal has a "side product" that will pay its yearly board 

 bill. The lamb crop comes in as clear profit and is a large return in com- 

 parison with the investment. More mutton is being consumed per capita 

 and the great increase in population has made a noticeable advancement in 

 the demand for mutton. The price of lambs on the leading markets 

 during recent years has averaged higher than cattle or hogs. Even if 

 prices had been equal, lambs would have been the most profitable, owing 

 to low cost of production. It has been demonstrated that from a given 

 amount of feed lambs will make the largest gain, and they are also 

 much easier cared for than other stock. 



Many farmers have been born where cattle, hogs and corn were 

 of farming, "but it cannot always be continued. Experienced men say that 

 about all they saw, and truly good returns have come from that sort 

 the profits are not nearly so great now as in the past, and if it were 

 continued without variation the farms would not be as valuable as they 

 might have been. The necessity of a change is realized, and nothing else 

 fills the place like a fiock of sheep. Evidence of this comes from the 

 large number of flocks which have been founded during recent years 

 only good for rough, brushy land which could not "be plowed. They did 

 on just such farms. Years ago the prevalent idea was that sheep were 

 give the largest obtainable returns from such land, but now farmers also 

 know that sheep in their place give the largest returns from high priced 

 land. Those who realize that no land can raise corn for an indefinite 

 period are in a majority of cases putting in a flock of sheep. The prin- 

 cipal cause of less flocks seems to have been because most farmers did 

 not grow up where sheep were kept, so that they have never given any 

 attention to the true value of a flock. As deeper study is given to 

 sheep, the fewer will be the number of farms without them. English 

 farmers have long ago learned that in order to derive the greatest possible 

 profit from a farm, a flock of sheep must be kept upon it. As American 

 land approaches the value of theirs, the absolute necessity of soil fer- 

 tility comes into prominence, and farmers figure for the last dollar that 

 their farms will produce, either directly or indirectly, then sheep will 

 come into their place and there will be the right relation between the 

 farm and the flock. 



THE COST OF PRODUCING MUTTON. 



As farming cannot be successfully continued without occasional change 

 to grasses for the maintenance of live stock, thus fertilizing the soil in 

 different ways, and owing to the fact that sheep make the "best use of 

 all odds and ends about the pastures, meadows, rye patches, corn with 

 rape underneath, etc., and are the best of live stock to fertilize by their 

 droppings, no farm, however rich in natural fertility or high in price, 

 will give largest net returns without a flock of sheep. Therefore the 

 question is: "What breed of sheep gives the largest profits continually?" 

 Shropshires are the most economical producers of mutton, giving higher 

 returns in carcass weight for food consumed than any other of the 

 acknowledged mutton "breeds. Each pound of mutton they produce Is 



