96 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



know, however, that the sheep part is increasing and that Iowa will 

 be a great sheep country. In fact, Southern Iowa, I believe, is now 

 increasing her flocks and the value of her flocks on high priced land 

 — we must increase the value of flocks rather than increase the 

 numbers. 



The sheep husbandry of the United States has made the greatest 

 advance of any of the live stock industries the past ten years. And 

 why shouldn't it? That we are destined to become the greatest 

 sheep raising and mutton consuming country in the world, is 

 as safe a prediction, as that we are rapidly and surely becoming 

 one of the richest and most powerful nations on the globe. We 

 have territory enough to sustain half the sheep in the world without 

 unbalancing our system of mixed husbandry. Within our great 

 commonwealth we have varied conditions of climate and forage 

 growth for any and every known breed of sheep. 



If England can furnish environment enough to sustain twenty- 

 five or thirty distinct breeds, our great country should produce 

 every known breed in the world. 



We know we have the resources, but what of the results. We 

 must give diligent thought to selection, care and mating of our 

 flocks, in order to produce the most mutton with the least cost. 



Let us compare the cost of production of mutton with beef — and 

 this I have from a talk given by Prof. Curtiss four or five years 

 ago, from an experiment carried on at your station, and I think the 

 best comparison we have from any college, and the Ames College 

 is one of the leading colleges in the Union. From this experiment, 

 carried on at Ames, we have the following : 



One hundred and nine sheep were fed ninety days, and given 

 34,501 pounds of feed, grain and hay. They fed 34,501 pounds of 

 feed and produced 4678 pounds of mutton, giving us the ratio of 

 1 : : 1 31-100. For every pound of mutton produced, 1.31 pounds 

 of feed was consumed, at a cost of 2.93 cents per pound of feed, 

 at market value, which was a little more than farmers would realize, 

 This experiment included representatives from each breed of sheep. 



The best work they could obtain the same winter with cattle, 

 was with a bunch of grade Hereford steers coming two years old, 

 fed on similar food rations. In that experiment it required 8.9 

 pounds of this feed to produce one pound of beef, covering a period 

 of one year's feeding. 



It is estimated the average amount of feed to produce one 

 pound of beef at the different experiment stations and similar 

 places where experiments have been conducted in the United States 



