190 TYPES AND MARKET CLASSES OF LIVE STOCK 



rows and corners and a tidier appearance generally. It is 

 also true that sheep raising requires comparatively little labor. 

 The labor cost per dollar's worth of wool or lambs is lower than 

 in any other farm-animal product. It should be emphatically 

 stated, however, that sheep will not do well unless they are 

 given constant attention and the care necessary to maintain 

 thrift, yet the amount of work required is by no means heavy 

 except at lambing and shearing time. One competent man can 

 care for from 300 to 500 ewes during winter. 



Sheep raising, properly managed, is profitable on the corn- 

 belt farm, while the New England states, and large areas of cut- 

 over timber lands in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are 

 suitable for sheep as soon as provision is made for the produc- 

 tion of winter feed. Many millions of acres in this country 

 not now in farms and which are largely unfit for the plow and 

 not suitable for grazing by other animals, will eventually return 

 a revenue in lambs and wool. The sheep's ability to prosper 

 on grass and roughage, with little grain, gives it first call under 

 these conditions. 



The advantages of sheep, as compared to other live stock 

 on the farm, have been most ably presented by the late Prof. 

 John A. Craig.* He calls attention to the following: 



1. Compared with cattle, sheep produce more liberally 

 in proportion to what they consume. They consume more feed 

 in proportion to their weight, and a larger proportion of what 

 is eaten goes into increase. However, sheep are not so well 

 fitted as cattle to utilize large quantities of coarse roughage. 



2. The form in which sheep manure is dropped and the 

 way it is tramped into the soil insure a smaller waste than is 

 possible under any other system of stock farming. The sheep's 

 habit of lying upon the highest spot of the field or pasture leaves 

 the larger part of the droppings at the place where they are 

 most needed. 



3. Sheep farming utilizes what would be otherwise waste 

 land. 



4. They convert into mutton and wool much material 

 that cannot be utilized by other animals. This is particularly 

 true of grain lost in stubble. Volunteer growth or aftermath 

 too scanty for other stock is just suited to the grazing habits 

 of sheep. 



Sheep Farming in North America, pp. 3-8. 



