40 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



more time to examine the cattle and bid or price them on their merits. 

 "VVlien he is required to do the worlv of five days in two it is not sur- 

 prising that his judgment, hastily formed of necessity, is faulty, and 

 when he is unable to appraise cattle on their merits the own^r fre- 

 quently suffers grievously. The five-day-market system will work to the 

 advantage of all concerned, shippers, railroads, stock yards, commission 

 men and buyers. It is a reform that ought to have been affected 10 

 years ago. 



Gentlemen! We want Iowa to help us make these Monday and 

 Wednesday gluts, things of the past. With evenly distributed receipts 

 results will be more satisfactory and you will be so thoroughly con- 

 vinced that reversion to the old plan will be impossible. I thank you 

 for the opportunity to push the good work along. 



The President: Our next subject is "Modern Sheep Rais- 

 ing," by Joseph E. Wing, of Mechanicsburg, Ohio. 



MODERN SHEEP RAISING. 



JOSEPH E. WING, MECHANICSBURG, O. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I have a big sub- 

 ject, and only a half hour to tell it in. There are so 

 many different things I want to talk about. I remember 

 very well how ignorant I was at modern sheep raising when I first 

 started in it. I have been a cattle feeder, you know. When we were 

 ranching in the west, and when we saw a sheep on the hill, we just 

 passed him on the run. So I knew nothing about sheep, except that 

 they had four legs and wool. I went back to farming in Ohio, a coun- 

 try much like this; the land of about the same price, and you got 35 

 bushels an acre and we 45. Conditions were very similar. Well, I went 

 back there and started to feeding cattle on the old farm Home. Cattle 

 didn't pay very well; it was in the 90's, you know, and conditions were not 

 just right. Finally I said to myself, here are sheep; a sheep has wool; wool 

 sells at 25 cents a pound; I believe I would like to have some sheep. I just 

 bought a little bunch of ewes. They were good ones; I had them 

 selected by a man who owned sheep; he was a good man, and he picked 

 them out for me. I went down to my little wife — she wasn't so little 

 —we hadn't been married so very long. We drove down the old shady 

 lane, between the rail fence; they came trotting along that old stone 

 pike of ours — hadn't heard about Mr. King's roads then. The man 

 turned them over to us; I gave him his money; I borrowed it, by the 

 way. I came home with that little bunch of ewes; there was my little 

 wife in the buggy; there I was walking behind that bunch of ewes; 

 what more did any man need? I certainly was happy. I says, 

 Florence, I am going to take these old sheep home, and I am going to 

 treat them so well — that girl married me with some foolish idea — I 

 had to borrow the money to pay the preacher when I married her; 



