TYPES AND MARKET CLASSES OF LIVE STOCK 237 



The foregoing figures show that the far western division, 

 which includes the range states, has more sheep than all other 

 divisions combined. 



In the United States* the sheep slaughter, including lambs, 

 was 44.9 per cent, of the stock of ewes in 1900, and 46.1 per cent, 

 in 1910. The census of 1900 indicated that the average amount 

 of mutton and lamb produced during the year was 18 pounds 

 per head of stock ewes. The figure for 1910 was 19 pounds. 

 Sheep have a lower ratio than cattle or swine. The reason for 

 this is found in the low meat productivity of sheep kept for 

 wool. 



Source of improvement. A certain few men have col- 

 lected the very choicest purebred and registered mutton sheep 

 that may be had, almost regardless of price, and have estab- 

 lished magnificent flocks upon which they have used rams that 

 were selected with great care and at considerable expense. The 

 owner of such a flock makes it his business to supply breeding 

 rams and some breeding ewes to breeders of less prominence 

 than himself. Year after year he slowly improves his flock 

 by careful selection and mating, and he is thus enabled to send 

 out better rams each year to head the flocks of less prominent 

 breeders. In turn, these less prominent flocks supply better 

 breeding animals to more numerous and still less noted breeders, 

 and so the scheme works out, improvement slowly, but surely, 

 flowing downward and outward from a few flocks to the many. 

 There is a third class of breeders who are producing directly for 

 the market. The produce of their flocks is sold to feeders, or 

 else they themselves feed out the lambs for market. We may, 

 therefore, classify all flocks of sheep as follows: 



1. A few flocks solely for improvement. 



2. Numerous flocks primarily for propagation and sec- 

 ondarily for improvement. 



3. Many flocks solely for mutton production. 



The breeders of the third class secure their rams from the 

 second-class flocks, and their ewes are generally grades. 



The mutton breeding ram. The selection of the breeding 

 ram should be most carefully made as he affords the chief op- 

 portunity for improvement in the flock. For this reason it is 

 wise to invest several times the average value of the ewes in the 

 purchase of a ram to mate with them. However, it is not so 



* U. S. Dept. Agr. Report 109, p. 124. 



