578 



SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



difficult to find a flock in most counties that did not bear marks of 

 them. There are reasons peculiar to the climate and soil why the 

 Merino has never obtained a general foothold in Indiana, and one of 

 these is given in an address by Hon. Lee McDaniel, in 1881: 



The Merino as a breed can not be grown successfully on a great portion of the soil 

 of Indiana^ because it is too low and black; their hoofs will grow crooked in spite of 

 every effort in trimming. They will take the foot rot and scab. So you see we 

 must cross if we expect to retain any of the blood of this valuable little animal. 



At a time when nearly every county in the country had its sheep- 

 shearing festival Indiana was not backward, but the records are want- 

 ing. A record of scoured fleeces and the shrinkage is preserved. In 

 1865, in Parke County, several Merino fleeces were scoured and dried 

 at a woolen factory in the vicinity, and weighed accurately before and 

 after scouring: 



The 10 fleeces averaged as shorn 11 pounds 1 ounce, as cleaned 3 

 pounds 14 ounces, a shrinkage of over Co per cent, or not quite two- 

 thirds waste to one-third wool. 



The demand for wool caused by the war increased the number of 

 sheep from 1860 to 1865 100 per cent. But when the war closed and 

 wool fell in price there was a great reduction. Whole flocks were sold 

 out and the farmers 7 attention was turned to corn and hogs and dairy 

 products. But, on the whole, there had been an increase from 991,175 

 sheep in 1860 to 1,612,680 in 1870, notwithstanding the great loss from 

 1865 to 1870. The tariff act of 1867 did not arrest the decline, and there 

 was a loss from 1870 to 1880 of over 500,000, or more than 33 per cent. 

 And notwithstanding this loss in the number of sheep the wool clip of 

 1880 exceeded that of 1870 by over 1,000,000 pounds. 



The Merinos have constantly decreased, and they are not a ruling- 

 factor in wool-growing in Indiana. There are some good breeding 

 flocks and some grades, but they are in small proportion to the other 

 breeds and their crosses. The low price of wool had something to do 

 with their general disappearance, but more was due to the greater 

 profit in raising fat sheep for market. This is a great industry in the 

 State. The rapid development of manufactures, the growth of villages 

 to towns, of towns to cities, and the increasing consumption of mutton, 



