PART TWO. 

 SHEEP. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The United States ranks as one of the principal mutton- 

 producing and wool-growing countries of the world. The sheep 

 industry in America dates back to early times. It has exper- 

 ienced more ups and downs, due to changing conditions and 

 varying prices than has the cattle industry or the hog industry. 

 At the present time the sheep business is in a transitional stage. 

 The number and size of flocks in most of the western range 

 states continue to decline. In the farming states increased 

 interest in sheep and increased production are now noticeable. 

 Lamb and wool production is a profitable business at the present 

 time and promises to continue so, not only under range conditions 

 but also in intensive farming. 



Lamb and wool production require a smaller use of grain 

 feeds than is required with other kinds of live-stock farming. 

 A majority of lambs are marketed at weaning time and without 

 having had any feed other than the milk of their dams and a 

 slight amount of grazing. The lamb carcass requires less fat 

 to render it suitable for the table than is necessary in any other 

 class of meat. This fact adapts sheep raising to sections that 

 are not adapted to the production of grains but can furnish 

 good pasturage and forage crops. Lambs born late in the sea- 

 son, lambs raised by ewes which are not good milkers, and lambs 

 raised under conditions which do not produce a good milk flow 

 in the ewes go into the hands of feeders and consume consider- 

 able grain, but their finish is largely produced from hay and 

 other roughages of comparatively lower value. Breeding ewes 

 require little grain, and good fleeces are produced without the 

 use of concentrated feeds. 



Sheep have been advocated on the ground that no labor 

 or attention is needed. It has been said that they are farm 

 scavengers, that they will clear the farm of weeds. It is true 

 that sheep will eat most weeds, and that farms which have a 

 flock of sheep usually give evidence of that fact in cleaner fence 



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