FARM ANIMALS 239 



wethers at an early age and feeding the old ewes 

 for mutton as soon as they are past the age when 

 they can be profitably kept for breeding pur- 

 poses. If mutton is the main point for which the 

 sheep is raised the size, form and quality of the 

 meat are obviously the main points sought by 

 the sheep raiser. 



On the other hand, throughout the western 

 range states very different conditions prevail 

 with regard to the sheep industry, and this has 

 led to different methods of sheep raising. In 

 general an attempt has been made for many years 

 in the western range states to obtain a sheep 

 which may be referred to as a general purpose 

 sheep. This sheep has been bred so as to produce 

 a fairly good mutton form of reasonable size and 

 at the same time as much wool as is possible with 

 good mutton development. In securing this gen- 

 eral purpose sheep, it has been the habit of the 

 sheep raisers throughout the northern and cen- 

 tral Rocky Mountain region to breed back and 

 forth, alternately crossing with coarse wool bucks 

 and fine wool bucks so as to prevent the fleece 

 from becoming either too fine or too coarse. For this 

 purpose two flocks of bucks are maintained, usually 

 Lincolns or Cotswolds for the coarse type and 

 Merinos for the fine wool. As soon as the lambs 

 show a too coarse wool they are bred to Merino 

 rams in order to bring the wool of the succeeding 

 generation back to the requisite fineness. Along 

 the Pacific coast and throughout the Southwest 

 and Mexico, the Merino has been the prevailing 

 type of sheep from early historical times and it 

 may be said also that the Merino has recently gained 

 ground in the region where a grade sheep with me- 

 dium fine wool has heretofore been preferred. The 



