718 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



county. The industry is iii a very prosperous condition. The sheep 

 are strong and thrifty, and the wool staple of good length and strength. 



Fergus County has 340,000 sheep, consisting of 150,000 ewes, 85,000 

 wethers, and 105,000 lambs, with a total present value of $900,000. 

 Two hundred firms or individuals are engaged in sheep husbandry, 

 owning respectively all the way from 1,200 to 30,000, the range of ex- 

 treme holdings. The ranch properties, exclusive of sheep 3 are valued 

 from $1,500 to $30,000, or an average of $4,500. The most notable 

 change apparent in the business is the discarding of the fine grades of 

 Merino, and breeding for medium wool and mutton. Forty thousand 

 sheep shipped out of this county during 1890 to Chicago and the Da- 

 kotas netted the owners here from $2.25 to $3 per head. 



Now, by comparing the actual number of sheep in a few counties with 

 the numbers reported for taxation purposes for 1891, it is found that it 

 is necessary to add almost exactly 33J per cent to the number reported 

 by the assessors to equal the actual number. On this basis of estima- 

 tion there were on January 1, 1891, 2,019,796 sheep in Montana, which, 

 with the increase of the present year (1891) of 40 per cent, 807,918 head, 

 would make a grand total of 2,827,714 sheep, valued at $8,776,212. 

 The wool clip of 1891, which was 14,138,572 pounds, netted the growers 

 $2,356,428. To this number of sheep and the wool add other property 

 belonging to the sheep industry as an essential part, which a low care- 

 ful estimate would place at least $9,000,000. 



To recapitulate what the sheep industry of Montana represents in 

 numbers and values for 1891: 2,827,714 sheep, value $8,776,212 5 

 14,138,572 pounds of wool which net $2.356,428, and property of 

 sheep-owners other than sheep, at $9,000,000, gives a grand total of 

 $20,132,640. Thus the sheep industry of Montana represents in round 

 numbers the sum of $20,000,000, as one of the resources of this young 

 State for 1891. 



THE INDUSTRY AS VIEWED BY THE STATE VETERINARIAN, HERBERT HOLLOWAY, V. S. 



Over two-thirds of the surface of the State of Montana is suitable 

 for the purpose of grazing sheep. Foothills, rolling prairies, and fer- 

 tile valleys afford water courses, sheltered feeding grounds, and fine 

 locations for home ranches. 



The natural consequence of this is that the industry has grown in 

 twenty-five years from absolutely nothing into one of magnificent pro- 

 portions. In round numbers 2,000,000 sheep now feed upon Mon- 

 tana ranges, and this year (1891) over 12,000,000 pounds of wool were 

 shipped, as the annual clip, to eastern markets. A brief glance at the 

 history of the first introduction of sheep into the State, and a descrip- 

 tion of what the Montana sheep is, as it has been bred up to, will be of 

 interest. 



To the early Jesuit fathers must be given the credit of making the 

 first importation of sheep into what is now the State of Montana. In ( 



