594 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



whom has retired. He commenced a poor boy, and one time I asked him 

 why he didn't have a dog. He said: I cannot afford to keep a dog; I can't 

 afford to run the risk that dog might be to my neighbor; it might go out 

 and scare a neighbor's team and maybe cripple some one. No\y, the dogs 

 are worth nothing. The New York State Supreme Court decided that 

 they were game; you can shoot them down any place; there is no value 

 to them. The next is the poor fences. I kept 600 to 800 sheep. When 1 

 sold them it was all clear money. I have made money out of sheep, but 

 the worms got in among my sheep, and I must admit I was careless about 

 it. If I had given those sheep salt and turpentine I don't believe I would 

 have made the failure I did. I kept sheep thirty years before I made that 

 failure. I failed, and I had to sell off my sheep, and since then I have 

 been buying sheep. Now, as we have heard, ten sheep will make j-ou 

 $50.00 — they will clear $50.00. You keep a cow a year that will eat as 

 much as those sheep and she will make you $50.00. You can make more 

 out of a cow by dairying than any other way. You can make more out of 

 butter and cheese, and the milk is always worth more than it is to raise 

 the calf on. Now then, that cow; you can give her all the chance, and 

 will she make $50.00? You take that cow and you have to work seven 

 days in the week. How much time have you got to put in on the sheep? 

 I should have taken 100 sheep and ten cows; you would have seen it 

 plainer. Now, which has made you the most money for your trouble? 

 His statement is correct. I know he is right about it. Which is the 

 easiest, which has left your farm in the best condition, the sheep or 

 the cow? I know there is no live stock that can increase or decrease as 

 quickly as sheep, but you want to go on with them and you will come 

 out ahead. I have kept sheep and cattle, and my sheep will make double 

 the money cattle will make. 



Address by Mr. Arxold, before the Mahaska County Farmers' Institute. 



I will tell you why I keep sheep. Not for the money. When I quit 

 keeping sheep I quit farming. I would not farm without sheep. I am 

 a strictly hog and cattle man. I find my pasture grows up in the weeds 

 if I don't keep sheep. I find my stubble grows up, and I turned my sheep 

 en the stubble, and they cleared it up without any expense, and I find 

 that it is clear profit. It don't pay me to raise cockle-burs, but I cannot 

 farm successfully without sheep. My pasture grows up and it looks bad; 

 the farm looks bad without sheep. I am not able to kill all these weeds, 

 but the sheep will do it cheaper than t can hire it. I believe in keeping 

 all kinds of stock on the farm. You cannot make a success without 

 keeping all kinds of stock; too much stock of any kind don't do well. 

 Divide the stock out amongst the sheep and cattle and hogs, and the 

 farm will be a success where it would not be, not to keep all those kinds 

 of stock. I know the sheep clean up the farm. I know there is a clean 

 profit in a small bunch. I had a hundred sheep once, and I reduced it 

 because I had bad luck. 



