Introduction 



By F. EDSON WHITE 

 Vice President of Armour and Company 



THE sheep, as a domesticated animal, is closely bound with the 

 great movements of world commerce during the past hundred 

 years. The history of sheep raising reflects the remarkably 

 rapid development of commerce and industry during the nineteenth 

 century, in which the founders of the packing industry took part. 



TA I// T/17 / ^ ess *han a century ago mutton was little 



1 ne Ola WOOl usec j outside the densely populated districts 



Type Of Sheep of the Old World. In the Americas, Africa, 



Australia and Central Asia remote regions 



where transportation was poor and land was cheap and sparsely 

 populated there was no market for mutton and sheep were raised 

 for skins and fleeces only. For the production of these, the Merino 

 was the ideal type, and it had the field all to itself. 



Up to as late as 1 870 four-fifths of all the sheep in America were 

 either pure-bred or grade Merinos. During the following twenty 

 years, however, several developments of world-wide significance 

 took place which changed the aspect of the world's sheep-raising 

 industry. 



fJ/LsM* 7l/f, 4+ Railroad building and steamboat opera- 



Wtien MUttOn tion> a i ong wit h the practical application of 

 Superseded large-scale refrigeration and the refrigerator 



H/OO/ car, annihilated time and distance between 



the sheep ranges and the centers of world 



meat consumption so that the sheep grower for the first time found 

 himself face to face with the strong and steady pull of a world de- 

 mand for mutton as well as wool and skins. 



Sheep growers began crossing their wool-growing type of sheep 

 with the various mutton types of Europe. 



If Z>A7* n Not until 1 86q was the first through-line 



nOW rnlllp U. railroad opened up between Chicago and 

 Armour Broad- New York, so that cars of western meats or 

 ened the Market other goods could be shipped through to 

 eastern markets without reloading. 



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