PART III 



SHEEP. 



INTRODUCTION. 



SHEEP are associated with man in the earliest records of the 

 human race. They were first used only for milk and later the 

 skins were used for clothing. Nearly a century and a half 

 have elapsed since Robert Bakewell of Dishley, Loughborough, 

 England, began the first systematic and intelligent improvement of 

 mutton sheep. Prior to that time wool had been the primary con- 

 sideration in sheep raising. 



Spain, the home of the Merino, at one time controlled the wool 

 markets of the world, and in the early management of the Spanish 

 Merino the ewes were so small that it was common to kill half the 

 lambs in order that those remaining might go to two ewes. The 

 fleece was practically the only consideration in the sheep reared in 

 that country, and this has been the distinguishing characteristic of 

 the Merino breed until within the present decade. As late as 1892 

 J. H. McKibbon of Albion, Iowa, exhibited a yearling American 

 Merino at the Iowa Sheep Breeders' shearing meeting that yielded a 

 15-pound fleece from a 54-pound carcass. 



Bakewell's work marks the beginning of a new era in sheep 

 raising in Great Britain. His achievements in the practical and scien- 

 tific improvement of live stock and the consequent increased value 

 and profit in farm animals entitle him to take rank with the great- 

 est benefactors of humanity. Bakewell's contemporaries credit him 

 as being a man of such analytical and systematic methods, such force 

 of intellect and creative genius, that he would have been eminent in 

 any field of labor or undertaking. The problems connected with 

 live-stock production are even more intricate at the present time and 

 the conditions in agriculture more exacting. Good animals never 

 come by chance or haphazard methods ; they have been the product 

 of a high degree of intelligence, skill, and intellectual ability. This 

 field will always be worthy of the best minds and highest talent the 

 world affords. (Dep. Agr. F. B. 96.) 



THE PRINCIPAL BREEDS. 



Merinos. Modern Merinos originated in Spain but their ances- 

 try traces back to the sheep of Italy, Greece and Syria. For the most 

 part they have been raised in large flocks and, hence, adapt them- 

 selves to range conditions more readily than the English Mutton 

 Breeds, which have generally been handled in small flocks. Thero 

 are many distinct types of Merinos known by different names. All, 

 however, are characterized by the extreme fineness of their wool and 



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