FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 401 



My small amount of experience has only been as a breeder. The good 

 profits and quick returns of buying sheep to put in the feed lot is a branch I 

 have not entered, but believe that many of the Ida county farmers will find 

 this very profitable. 



The profits will become larger in raising and breeding sheep when more 

 of our farmers handle them, as the losses in buying blooded rams for use, 

 with no market for them amongst the neighbors is quite large. 



Again, as we are at this time in our county, there is very little sale for 

 thoroughbred ram lambs, and these to be thrown on the market as butcher 

 stufif, at a small per cent of their actual value. There is, however, one way 

 of reducing this loss, and that is by killing the surplus for our own table. A 

 lamb, if fed right, is as nice eating as a turkey and perhaps much easier 

 digested. 



SHEEP ON THE FARM. 



Chicago Drovers^ Journal. 



There are not many farms either too large or too small for sheep. Sheep 

 on the farm pay. We believe that this simple proposition has been proven 

 on every farm where they have been given at least moderate care. Writers 

 at various times have lauded the possibilities of the flock. Odd as it may 

 seem, the subject has not been exhausted. So productive of profit to the 

 purse and fertility to the soil is the sheep that a great deal may be said and 

 still remain within the limits of reason. While the flock may be made to 

 prosper under many unfavorable circumstances, still they need some atten- 

 tion. Even the shiftless farmer can make something out of sheep, but still 

 there are limits that even the sheep can not grow profitably. However, a 

 man may succeed with sheep, we believe, who is so shiftless that he might 

 entirely fail with horses, cattle or hogs. 



One of the first essential is good stock. We do not necessarily mean 

 pure-bred stock, but well bred individuals. To illustrate how simple this 

 may be one need only look about himself in almost every community and 

 find one or more flocks that have been gradually bred into first class grade 

 stock by the introduction of pure-bred or high-grade rams of some first-class 

 mutton breed, and by following a course of breeding for a series of years with 

 vigorous, serviceable rams from the same breed. To show what may be 

 done with a flock in comparison with other stock, we will quote from a 

 letter from a correspondent who is evidently a strong admirer of the flock as 

 compared with other live stock: 



' 'It requires about the sdme amount of feed to produce a pound of flesh 

 on a steer as on a sheep. The investigators show that to be true as a rule. 

 But sheep will thrive on weeds and grass that cattle will not touch, and when 

 the fact is remembered that sheep produce a clip of wool every year in 

 addition to mutton the balance is in favor of sheep. 



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