AXIMAL IXDUSTKIES 223 



southern, the oldest agriculturally of the State, where 

 sheep-raising had long been a well-established busi- 

 ness. The ten counties enumerated had nearly one- 

 half the sheep and wool output of Michigan. 



The severe drought tliat afflicted the range country 

 east of the Rocky Mountains in Montana and adja- 

 cent territory in the summer and autumn of 1919 

 forced large shipments of cattle and sheep into more 

 favored regions. The cut-over country south of Lake 

 Superior, well supplied with succulent grasses and 

 brush, received large consignments of animals. The 

 United States Department of Agriculture and the 

 Tapper Peninsula Development Bureau promoted this 

 migration, and very considerable numbers of sheep 

 found their way into the northern peninsula of 

 Michigan. The movement was continued in 1920, 

 but with the return of more favorable conditions in 

 the seasons of 1920 and 1921, the tide fell off. Its 

 recession, however, left the northern counties of the 

 State much better stocked with sheep than had for- 

 merly been the case, and the ten million acres or more 

 of cut-over lands of Michigan were being seriously 

 considered as a new range for the live-stock industry.^ 



In addition to this large-scale sheep ranching in 

 the northern range country, there has been developing 

 a small-scale intensive sheep business participated 

 in by farmers, chiefly of Finnish nationality and of 

 limited means, financed by townsmen on a profit- 

 sharing basis. 



Of the breeds of sheep represented in Michigan 



^"Yearbook," U. S. Dept. Agr., 1919, 401. 



