264 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



France, and even England, but by a course of legislation with reference to the protection and 

 increase of wool and its manufacture, England to-day takes the lead among nations in this 

 enterprise. During the increased interest in sheep growing, and the improvement of wool 

 in these countries at that time, and while the mania was at its height, great care was bestowed 

 upon these animals, which to the present age would seem ludicrous. The flocks were carefully 

 watered and tended, and the finest specimens selected and housed. Sacks were sown on their 

 bodies, and the wool was frequently washed in wine and combed. 



By such careful management for a few generations the fleeces became greatly improved 

 i:i texture, fineness, and softness, but the sheep became in consequence less robust and 

 considerably reduced. The improvement of the form and size together with the fleece, is of 

 a more recent date, and since the increased demand for mutton, as an article of food ; as a 

 result, we now have these superb breeds that produce both wool and mutton of the best 

 quality, and also in large quantities. 



Importance of Sheep Husbandry. Though the income .from sheep husbandry in 

 our country adds much to our national wealth, yet it might be said, when compared with 

 England and our facilities for this enterprise, that it had here scarcely commenced, and is 

 still but a small fraction of what it might and ought to be, owing to the extensive and 

 superior facilities for this important department of agriculture. Importations of wool and 

 woolen goods amount to many millions of dollars annually, and if this money remained at 

 home instead of being sent to a foreign country, it would materially increase our national 

 wealth and prosperity. By producing our own wool and manufacturing it, this would be 

 the natural result. The extensive areas of the west and many portions of the south afford 

 admirable opportunities for sheep raising at a little expense and large profit to the farmer. 



Many of the leading men of the South are appreciating this fact and turning their 

 attention to this business and the establishing of woolen and cotton mamifactories. The 

 Western States have long been engaged in the production of mutton and wool with immense 

 profits to that section, but the production might be largely increased to the benefit of the 

 entire country. The conducting of extensive sheep ranches is a characteristic feature of 

 portions of the far west, where several thousand sheep are often kept in one ranch, a single 

 herder sometimes managing 2,500 with the help of his faithful shepherd dog, and the 

 leader of the flock, which is generally a Mexican goat, and whose lead the sheep will follow 

 even though it be over the sides of a precipice. . But they are generally well trained and 

 evince much sagacity in wending their way from and towards the corral, which they know 

 will protect them at night. 



In the Eastern States sheep raising must of necessity be limited, but when practiced on 

 a small scale even, and well managed, it is found to be profitable, requiring but a small 

 capital invested and bringing quick returns. We trust the time is not far distant when we 

 shall not only be able to supply all our extensive manufactories with wool of home product, and 

 thus obviate the necessity of importation for this purpose, but shall have an amount to 

 export for foreign manufacture that shall bring an immense revenue to the nation; the 

 amount now exported being small compared with that of many other exported products. 



Hon. John L. Hayes of Boston, Mass., Secretary of the National Wool-Growers 

 Association, and editor of the Bulletin of the National Association of Wool Manufacture, 

 says in relation to sheep husbandry as a means of settling new territories: 



&quot; Pastoral sheep husbandry is of the first importance to the nation as the most effective 

 means of settling and improving the vast unoccupied lands of the new or vacant States of 

 the West and South. Of all the products of agriculture, wool is most capable of trans 

 portation; or, in other words, the greatest value can be placed in the smallest bulk, in a form 

 liable to receive the least injury in the friction of transportation. When the freight of wheat 

 from Chicago to seaboard costs eighty per cent, of its value, of pork thirty per cent., that of 



