SUGGESTIONS TO YOUNG BREEDERS 49 



long prices, closing out during depressed values, generally 

 fails. Every business, including that of live-stock produc- 

 tion, passes through periods of prosperity and of depression. 

 Sheep have far too often gone through extremes of values. 

 For example in February, 1920, live lambs sold on the 

 Chicago market for about 20 cents a pound. During the 

 next ten months they steadily declined in value until they 

 reached 11J4 cents a pound in December. These great drops 

 in prices are always accompanied by big losses, and thus, 

 discouraged, many men go out of the business, disgusted. 

 But here is just the time to stick. One will have no difficulty 



Figure 12. "Keep a few good ones." Photograph by Prof. John W. Decker. 



in finding plenty of examples to demonstrate that the man 

 who stays by his sheep through the years, whether prices are 

 good or bad, makes a good profit on his long time invest- 

 ment and has a well established credit among his neighbors. 

 Keep a few good animals, rather than many that are 

 inferior. One may perhaps make money breeding ordinary 

 individuals, but the right kind of reputation comes to a 

 breeder through his best animals. A buyer, as a rule, will 

 try to purchase the choicest stock. If the breeder sells 



