LECTURE LIX. 



ECONOMICAL METHOD OF STARTING A FLOCK. 



In the central west sheep are kept for three purposes: as 

 mutton producers, as wool producers, and as weed destroy- 

 ers. These are the three sources of income from the flock 

 of sheep. As weed destroyers they have no equal, as they 

 will eat readily over 575 out of the 600 different kinds of 

 weeds which grow in this country. The horse eats about 

 eighty, while cattle eat but fifty or sixty. For this purpose 

 alone sheep are useful and no farmer can afford to be with- 

 out a small flock. 



From a mutton and wool producing standpoint they are 

 also valuable. This being the case, we should pay attention 

 to mutton form and the growth of wool in selecting animals 

 for foundation stock. A man's liking for any business is 

 more or less controlled by the financial returns from the 

 same. This is especially true of the sheep breeding business. 

 If good judgment is used at the beginning no class of farm 

 animals will return as great profits on the investment as 

 will sheep. In starting the flock some advise the purchase 

 of purebred animals, such as a bunch of ewe lambs. This 

 means a heavy outlay of money at the beginning with not 

 much income during the first year. A ewe should not drop 

 her first lamb before she is two years old, thus the only 

 source of income from the ewe lamb is her wool clip, which 

 should pay for her keep. 



For the man who has no sheep a much more economical 

 and profitable method of starting the flock would be to pur- 

 chase the so-called old ewes which have been discarded from 

 the flocks of sheep men. Many people consider a ewe to be 

 old and undesirable when she attains the age of five years. 

 Such a ewe, if a good breeder, will not appear so nice to 

 the eye of the visitor as the two or three-year-old ewe. Still, 

 if her udder is good, there is no reason why she should not 

 be profitable from a breeding standpoint until she is eight 

 or ten years old. She is just the kind of an animal for the 



