FARM ANIMALS 277 



poses that the market price of wool is reasonably 

 good. Thus during trie past few years on the 

 ordinary Montana and Wyoming sheep ranch it 

 has cost $1 . 60 per head per year to feed and care 

 for sheep under conditions where a considerable 

 amount of land is cultivated to forage crops and 

 a large percentage of the grazing land owned or 

 leased. The value of the fleece averages about 

 $1 . 25 and the value of the mutton about seventy- 

 five cents per year for all of the sheep maintained 

 on a given ranch. This does not mean that the 

 average price of a mutton sheep is seventy-five 

 cents but only a certain part of them can be sold 

 in a given year for mutton so that of a total in- 

 come of $2 which may be taken as the average 

 for all sheep on the ranch only seventy-five cents 

 of it is to be credited to mutton while $1.25 

 comes from wool. Incidentally these figures 

 show an average profit from sheep under the con- 

 ditions mentioned to be about forty cents per head 

 per year or where the expense of feeding and care 

 are normal this is twenty per cent, on the money 

 invested or a clear profit of four per cent, on the 

 total invested capital. The sheep business is 

 thus seen to be, as at present managed, a reason- 

 ably profitable one. 



The Treatment of Lambs. Unless the lambs 

 are to be sold for mutton at the age of two or three 

 months it is best to dock the tails and castrate all 

 ram lambs excepting such as are to be preserved 

 for breeding purposes. Both of these processes 

 should take place at the same time and ordinarily 

 when the lambs are from ten to fourteen days of 

 age. The tails of blooded stock of great value 

 may be docked by the use of a hot pinching in- 

 strument especially devised for this purpose and 



