WEST OF THI-: MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 763 



can now be laid down as applicable to the existing conditions. It is 

 safest to begin sheep husbandry for a permanent basis in connection 

 Avith general fanning. Begin with a few yonug sheep, and as the flock 

 increases learn the proper management. It is unwise to start with 

 more than one can properly feed, shelter, and graze. Use none but 

 first-class rams, and breed so that lambs will come Avhen the sheep are 

 out on new grass. Let wool and mutton be the main consideration, 

 and each year dispose of the wool and feed the calls of the flock and 

 the wethers for mutton. A person who has had experience in handling 

 sheep and desires to make it an almost exclusive business had better 

 locate in the rough, hilly regions where water is available and cheap 

 grazing lands are unlimited, then get all the sheep that can be handled 

 properly. Provide, of course, cheap sheds with plenty of ventilation 

 and abundant hay for such times as the sheep are unsafe on the open 

 range, but even in winter, when the weather will permit, let the sheep 

 run out. As an experienced sheep-owner, at the annual meeting of 

 Dakota sheepmen, in a well-prepared paper, stated : 



Brains must enter into this work. Attention must be paid to every detail. Feed 

 must be supplied in abundance be properly put up and judiciously fed, Sheep 

 inu>t be kept full the year round, if the undertaking is to be made a success, and 

 they must be kept comfortable, if the very best results are to be expected. Sheep- 

 raising will have its ups and downs, its "booms" and its "busts," just like every- 

 thing else ; but with so many winning cards the Dakota man who sticks to it is bound 

 to win. When a man begins he must go slow at first, but cling to it. Cull his flock 

 and improve it. Aim to keep as many as possible of good square mother sheep and 

 their best ewe lambs. Raise lots of cornstalks, oats in the bundle, millet, and pease. 

 If your land is plowed and if you wish to get good prices and big fleeces, and whether 

 your neighbor "goes in" or "out" staud by your flock and they will stand by you. 

 The man who does this intelligently can never make a failure of sheep-raising in 

 Dakota. 



CARK AND PREPARATION OF DAKOTA WOOLS. 



After a personal inspection of a number of Dakota wool clips, both 

 at the farm and in the market at Minneapolis, the writer saAv the bad 

 effects of careless and inexperienced handling of wool, AA T hich entailed 

 unnecessary loss. With a view to pointing out the way of avoiding 

 this hardship to the sheep-owner and maintaining such a reputation for 

 Dakota wools as their merits dcser\^e, J. F. Nichols, of Minneapolis, an 

 expert on merchantable wools, who is thoroughly familiar Avith the 

 wools of the Northwest, at my request furnished the following on the 

 care and preparation of wools 



Growers in the Dakotas and the Northwest are very careless in letting their sheep 

 run to straw stacks, feeding from racks, and in many other ways letting their fleeces 

 get loaded with chaff, straw, seed, etc. The first thing most of the growers in the 

 Northwest want to learn is to keep extraneous matter out of the wool. Place feed 

 containing chaff, seed, etc. ,011 the ground, so the sheep can eatit without getting it 

 in their wool. Feed will not be wasted if only enough for a day is put out at a time. 

 Chaff, straw, burrs, and .seeds hurt the sale of wool from 2 to 10 cents per pound, 

 besides, it is the cause of much dissatisfaction on both the buyer and seller's part. 



