CHAPTER VI. 



SHEEP 



During the past twenty-five years the sheep 

 industry in the United States has been more 

 profitable perhaps than any other line of animal 

 industry, with the exception of pork raising. This 

 is due to a number of causes. In the first place, 

 sheep may be raised under nearly all climates. 

 They withstand cold weather better perhaps than 

 any other domestic animal and are able to care 

 for themselves on the range under what would 

 be disastrous conditions for either cattle or hogs. 

 While it has been often asserted that sheep are 

 not adapted to the general farming conditions 

 of the southern states, recent experiments seem 

 to indicate that fine profits can be secured from 

 sheep raising in Louisiana and the Gulf states. 

 Sheep are raised for two general purposes and 

 accordingly two types have been developed in 

 breeding them, viz., the wool type and the mutton 

 type. These two types have been necessary and 

 have been developed for the purposes of adapt- 

 ing sheep to different climatic and market con- 

 ditions. Thus, in the eastern states or where the 

 country is thickly settled and a large demand is 

 made for mutton it pays handsomely to raise sheep 

 for the mutton without regard to the value of the 

 wool. Under this system of sheep farming the 

 greatest profits may be made from marketing the 



