SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 661 



C— Regarding Sheep. 



SHALL I GO INTO SHEEP? 



WALLACES' FAEMEB. 



The high price of mutton and sheep is causing many farmers to ask 

 themselves this question. For the last ten years we have been urging 

 farmers in the corn and grass states to keep a few sheep. It is not 

 worth while to bother with less than twenty-five head, and that num- 

 ber is enough for the new beginner. If he follows our suggestions 

 these sheep will increase quite as rapidly as the ability of the ordinary 

 farm to handle them. We need not go into details as to why we have 

 urged this policy. Those who have adopted it have made good money, 

 and by reason of experience acquired will make more money in the 

 future, and more money than those who are going into it now. They 

 have learned by experience, which is the only way in which a man can 

 learn how to handle sheep. 



Whether a man should go into sheep depends largely on himself and 

 the character of his farm. In favor of going into it in this small way 

 we might call their attention to the fact that the high prices for mut- 

 ton and wool will probably continue for several years to come. There 

 has been a great reduction in the number of sheep over almost the 

 entire world. That is the reason why wool manufacturers and import- 

 ers are even now in the field contracting for the clip of 1906. In the 

 last four years the supply of sheep in the United States has fallen from 

 64,000,000 to something like 47,00,000, a reduction or nearly 25 per 

 cent. An even greater reduction has taken place in Australia as a 

 result of drouth. The sheep stock of European countries has likewise 

 declined, but not in the same proportion. Therefore the man who 

 goes into the sheep business has reasonable assurance of high prices 

 for some time to come. 



The question may arise: Shall I go into feeding or growing sheep? 

 It will not do for the cattle feeder to assume that because he knows 

 how to fatten cattle he is therefore an expert in fattening sheep. The 

 business of fattening sheep, like the business of fattening cattle, must 

 be learned by feeding them. The most careful man will pay consid- 

 erable tuition, and hence it is entirely unwise for a man without exi)eri- 

 ence to undertake it in a large way. The better way is to buy, if pos- 

 sible, some twenty-five ewes and a good buck of one of the mutton 

 breeds, and get his education in this line at a minimum of expense. It 

 would be difficult for him to lose anything if he knows how to take care 

 of them, and he should be able at the end of the year to sell enough 

 wool and lambs to give him back his money for his first investment, 

 and particularly so if he has blue grass or other short pasture, and have 

 his original fiock intact. 



