AKIKK IHK i AM' 



To the untrained eye, a sheep is not under any circumstances a beautiful animal, unless 

 when seen at a distance as part of a landscajjc. But the sheep which has just been shorn 

 is, perhaps, even less attractive, esthetically, than one in the fleece. The sacrifice is finan- 

 cially well worth while, however, for an average sheep will yield 8 pounds of wool a year, 

 which now brings the extraordinary price of 50 to 70 cents a pound. The animal above is a 

 yearling Southdown ram. Photograph from the U. S. Department of Agriculture. (Fig. 3.) 



land has degenerated and is so j^rown iq:) 

 with weeds as to be i^ractically wtjrth- 

 less. By ordinary methods this can 

 not be reclaimed profitably. But a 

 flock of sheep will clean uj) the weeds 

 and grow fat on them, and the blue-grass 

 will follow in their footstei)s. The 

 intelligent farmer whr) starts with even 

 a dozen ewes and allows them to reclaim 

 his waste land will make mone\'. 

 "Sheep stand alone," says I'"*. R. Mar- 

 shall,' "in their ability to yield a quickly- 

 made, marketable article from a maxi- 

 mum of forages. In a single season 

 they can harvest and economically use 



two immature crojjs from the same land 

 that ordinarily jiroduccs but one seed 

 crop. By manufacturing the jjlants 

 into meat and wool before they make 

 their greatest draft upon the fertilizing 

 elements of the soil, and by returning 

 thereto the greater part of those ele- 

 ments, the forage-raised sheep are 

 invaluable as conservers of soil fertility 

 and indisi)ensable occupants of land 

 deteriorated or in danger of deterioration 

 by grain-raising." 



In short, "the mutton sheep is the 

 most economical of animals for condi- 

 tions of intensive stock farming." 



* In an address before the Second Pan-American Scientific Congress. 

 390 



