THE PASTORAL LANDS OF AMERICA. 307 
been decreasing. Inthe State of Ohio, in the two years from 1867 to 1869, 
the number of sheep decreased 2,570,600. In all the States where sheep 
were kept only for wool-growing the decrease has been quite as rapid. 
The causes are, the high price of land, the great cost of raising hay and 
grain, and the length of time during which sheep require feeding 
through the winter. Wool costs so much when grown under such 
circumstances that there is no profit in raising it at ordinary market 
rates. The wool-growers of Australia, South Africa, and South America 
ean grow wool and transport it thousands of miles, pay a high duty, and 
then undersell our wool-growers in market. They have no high-priced 
land to pay interest upon, and no high-priced hay or grain to feed through 
long winters, as they graze in all seasons. We must of necessity, there- 
fore, if we grow wool at all, develop the resources of this great interior 
pasture land. In this regiou wool can be grown as cheaply as it can be 
produced in Australia and South America. The climate is dry, with an 
entire absence of long, cold rain-storms, from which sheep suffer so 
much. The atmosphere is cool and bracing, and the soil is dry, gravelly, 
and porous, with an abundance of short, sweet grasses and tender herb 
age throughout the year. Professor Daniel C. Naton, of Yale College, 
states that the flora is identical with that ef Angora and Cashmere which 
alone has produced the dazzling whiteness of the fleece of the Asiatic 
goat. The climate, soil, and vegetation of Australia are like thése 
mountain regions, except that the climate of the latter is cooler, with 
less rain. 
There seems to be no reason why not only the common clothing-wools, 
but also the long Merino combing-wools of Australia and the delaine 
wools of New Zealand should not be grown ia the pastoral regions under 
consideration. Hon. J. B. Chaffee, of Colorado, writes: 
I regret that I am not sufliciently posted in regard to the sheep-growing husbandry 
of Colorado to enable me to give yon facts and figures more definitely. The number 
of persons engaged in stock-raising is increasing so rapidly that the fact of its being a 
very remunerative business would seem to require no other demonstration. In one 
county (Conejos) out of the twenty-one counties of Colorado, over 300,000 sheep were 
grazing at one time last summer, and I do not think. 1,500,000 would be an everesti- 
mate forthe whole Territory. The climate and soil being dry, and the latter also 
ravelly and porous, and the grasses being very nutritious, with a great variety of 
food in the various aromatic plants of the country, sheep are scarcely liable to dis- 
ease. If is undoubtedly one of the most natural and best adapted sheep-growing 
countries in the world, and I think this is the universal testimony of those best 
acquainted with stock-raising who have visited Colorado in the last few years, In 
the southern portion of Colorado tho only expense is herding, the sheep subsisting 
upon the natural grasses of the country in the winter as well as in the summer, no 
preparation of hay or food being necessary. The net. profit is reckoned, after deducting 
every expense, at not less than 40, and by some at 75 per cent. per annum upon the 
investment, taking the price of wool as at present rated—about 12 cents per pound. 
Woolen manufactories are springing up, which will increase the price of wool by cre- 
ating a better market; and at no distant day this region may become one of the most 
‘extensive woolen manufacturing countries on the continent. The eastern slope of the 
tocky Mountains, including Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, is doubtless the 
best sheep-growing country on this continent, and probably in the whole world, and 
is capable of grazing more sheep, and at less cost, than al] the rest of the United States, 
At present the hostile Indians are the only drawback, and it is hoped that the railroad 
system now so rapidly being developed, with the careful and judicious managemout of 
Indian affairs by the present administration, will render the business comparatively, 
if not perfectly, safe in all this vast country within a short space of time. 
Hon. John M. Thayer, of Nebraska, writes: 
T am sure that wool can be grown on the Rocky Mountain slopes equal in fiber to the 
best wools of Australia, Saxony, Silesia, or Moravia, and at as low cost as any wool 
can be grown in the cheapest pastures of the world, and still leave a wide margin for 
profit. We ought to grow wool there not only for our own use, but for the use of 
the world. When we grow the necessary fibers of wool, I have no doubt that we shall 
