794 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



and blue grass make two crops a year, producing 1 to 2 tons per acre. Clovers are 

 among the best forage plants, and are admirably adapted to the soil and climate ; but 

 the greatest, best, and most profitable, and useful is the alfalfa plant. It has no 

 equal in any country, nor is there a section where it thrives more luxuriantly than 

 in Colorado. Having once a good stand it defies all attempts to eradicate it. It 

 makes three and sometimes four cuttings a year, averaging from 1^ to 3 tons an acre 

 per cutting, and in some localities of the State it is cut each month from June to 

 October. 



The estimated wool clip of 1888 is 9,000,000 pounds. Vast improve- 

 ment in breeds of cattle and sheep and in the qualities of wool pro- 

 duced has taken place in the past five to eight years. The better flocks 

 of sheep have paid about 20 per cent 011 the capital invested. The clip 

 per head in 1888 was a fraction over 6 pounds. Spanish Merinos bred 

 up from Mexican ewes predominate. There are comparatively few 

 Downs or mutton breeds in the State. The flocks are raised in many 

 of the mountain forks and valleys as well as on the plains. All Colorado 

 wools are shipped to Eastern markets because there are no manufacto- 

 ries here to consume products. 



In regard to the future of the sheep industry of Colorado, the Field 

 and Farm, published at Denver, has the following in its issue of March 

 7,1891: 



The most promising branch of the live-stock business just at present is, no doubt, 

 the sheep industry. Colorado now oft'ers special inducements in this line, and hun- 

 dreds of people who are not in the business to-day will sooner or later become en- 

 gaged in it. The occupation of the flock master, which has heretofore been carried 

 on in a nomadic and very primitive manner, will hereafter be more carefully carried 

 out. Irrigation must, from the necessity of the surroundings, become a great factor 

 in the future success of wool-growing on the plains. 



The old and unwarranted notion about allowing sheep to go through the winter 

 without feeding, and with only the frozen grasses for subsistence, has gone by, and 

 forage has become a regular item of annual expense to the sheep-raiser. Alfalfa hay 

 has proven itself a splendid winter feed for the wooly tribes, and much of it has been 

 consumed the present winter. Alfalfa is best grown by irrigation, and with the 

 many farms under ditch bordering on the natural grazing areas, a vast amount of 

 this forage will be provided hereafter, and sheep will be more generally fed as the 

 years roll by. 



It does not require a great acreage of alfalfa to provide a supply of hay sufficient 

 to carry an ordinary band of sheep through the average Colorado winter. The time 

 is fast approaching when many of the heavy sheep ranchers far out in the arid re- 

 gion will build storm dams at convenient places on their ranges to conserve the rains 

 and irrigate small tracts of alfalfa land. The three cuttings a season will furnish a 

 very satisfactory lot of prime hay, which may be fed out in severe winter weather as 

 the emergency of the flock may demand. Other ranchmen who make a specialty of 

 mutton will utilize great quantities of alfalfa in preparing their wethers for the win- 

 ter market, which is a most profitable one in the cities and mountain towns of Colo- 

 rado. 



THE NUMBER OF SHEEP AND VALUE OF THE INDUSTRY. 



The number of sheep in Colorado, the product of wool, and the mone- 

 tary value of this particular industry have never been published offici- 

 ally except in an incidental way, and never accurately. The local 



