EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 609 



The Illinois State agent for the U. S. Department of Agriculture, in 

 his report for January, 1890, says : 



There has been a steady decline annually in the number of sheep, the decline com- 

 mencing about 1884. The falling off in numbers the p?st year can not be chargeable 

 alone to the lower price of mutton, as the market is quite as good for mutton as last 

 year. Mutton breeds are receiving more attention, and only for the prevailing low 

 price of wool and the heavy loss annually by sheep-killing dogs this class of farm 

 animals would rapidly increase upon our farms in all parts of the State. Jt tax of 

 $1 per head is laid upon all dogs in the State, and this fund is intended to cover the 

 loss and damage to sheep by worthless curs, yet in some counties it pays only about 

 one-half of such damage and loss. 



And again, in January, 1891 : 



From 1884 to 1889, inclusive, there was a steady falling off in the numbers of sheep. 

 The better prices of mutton and wool for the past year or two are again bringing this 

 class of farm animals to the front. Only for the risk of loss and injury by sheep- 

 killing dogs a flock would soon be found on most of the farms of the State. 



Over 4 per cent of the sheep of the State are killed annually by the 

 dogs, the number in 1890 being about 28,000. 



In a recent address before the Farmers' Institute, at Farmer City, 

 111., published in the Breeders' Gazette May 6, 1891, Mr. A. M. Garland 

 called attention to the great decrease of sheep in the State. There was 

 a time when the census of her flocks outnumbered that of her people, 

 while now she has less than 1 sheep to 6 inhabitants, or but little over 

 630,000 sheep to her 35,000,000 broad acres. This was less than 1 

 sheep to 56 acres, less than 3 to each quarter section. She had less 

 than 1 sheep to 3 head of cattle, less than 1 sheep to six hogs. Taking 

 the State as a whole, in round numbers, there were 16 acres per head 

 for cattle, 9 acres per head for hogs, and 56 acres per head for sheep. 

 In the face of such facts and the annual decrease of the yield of wheat 

 per acre, Mr. Garland found warrant for asking why these things were 

 so, and if it was not high time for a change. 



With as good soil as can be found in the world most of it in virgin sod since some 

 of us were born and with all the appliances of modern invention in the hands of its 

 farmers, this great State figures an annual average of about 12 bushels, while the 

 more intensive agriculture of England is frequently rewarded with 30 bushels per 

 acre from lands that have been cultivated for two hundred years. Of course, this 

 difference is not all attributable to sheep ; but there is much in the fact that England 

 carries about 60 sheep to 100 acres more than 30 times the proportion carried in 

 Illinois. It would require that. about half of all the sheep in the United States should 

 be crowded into Illinois to stock the State proportionately with England. 



Do not understand me as saying that we should imitate England to the extent of 

 accepting and adopting all the details observed by the farmers of that nation. Over 

 there are found climatic, economic, and commercial conditions that can not be, and 

 some of them ought not to be, duplicated in this country. What I seek to empha- 

 size is the importance of ascertaining when and where and how the sheep can be 

 made to bring better returns from the farm than other domestic animals, and when 

 these facts are determined we can safely leave the result to the future. Once thor- 

 oughly impressed by the facts, the intelligence and enterprise of the farmers of the 

 country, seconded by the ever-augmenting necessity for climbing out of old ruts, will 

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