810 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



and shade; the winter Tange on the desert is also good while snow lasts. We breed 

 principally to French Merino rams during December, and many let them remain with 

 the flock until shearing time in April and May. Our shearing is done by gangs of 

 professional shearers, who easily handle 1,500 per day. Sometimes we sell our wool 

 to local buyers, or to our association, or ship to Eastern markets through them. Buy- 

 ers come here mostly from Nebraska and buy our muttons to feed. Sheep are getting 

 too numerous for our range, and laws passed by our legislature requiring us to keep 

 our sheep from streams near towns and villages are liable to cause some trouble. 



E. J. Cutler & Sons, Glendale, Kane County: 



We have been engaged in the business for twenty years, and are satisfied that 

 Utah can not be beaten by any country for ranging sheep, though to make it a suc- 

 cess one must get good herders that will stay with the flocks, keep them from stray- 

 ing, and move them frequently to good feed. The average wages paid for good help 

 is $35 per month, including board. We estimate that it does not cost us more than 

 25 cents per head per year, and we keep on an average 10,000 head. Of course we 

 range the year round, and do not feed or shelter. Our shearing is done sometimes 

 during April, May, or June, owing to the season. Some convenient place is secured 

 large enough to hold a flock, with small pens adjoining, where a few head are run 

 in, shorn, and the wool sacked on the ground, and later hauled to the railroad sta- 

 tion, sold there to wool-buyers or shipped to Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, or St. 

 Louis. We realize from 15 to 19 cents net for it, so that from our common sheep the 

 wool brings us from 75 cents to $1.25. 



Charles Crane, Kanosh, Millard County: 



I range about 20,000 French Merino grades, and breed to pure French Merinos 

 from 1 to 4 years old ; unless it is a very unfavorable season, raise 80 per cent 

 of the lambs. The clip from my flock runs from 8| to 14 pounds. I own 4,000 acres 

 of land, and I estimate the average cost per sheep a year at 70 cents. The advan- 

 tages possessed by Utah for sheep husbandry in the mountain and desert lands, 

 where no other domestic animals can exist, and for which no other use will ever be 

 found, can not be surpassed. The greatest obstacles we have to encounter are 

 wolves, lynx, hard winters, cold Mays during lambing season, poor feed, and poor 

 management. The public domain should be leased to actual stockmen, and the 

 lease money paid applied to the purchase of the domain ; then the ranges would be 

 protected and improved, pastures cultivated, and seed sown on the land. 



A. M. Everts, Nephi, Juab County : 



I raised thoroughbred Merinos in Vermont for thirty years. I came on a visit to 

 Utah five years ago, became interested in caring for sheep in the winter of 1887 and 

 1888, on the great desert range, where at one time could be seen 30 sheep wagons, 

 with an average number of 2,000 with each wagon. Among all these I saw but few 

 rams fit for use. In the spring of 1888 I shipped out 300 registered Vermont Merino 

 rams for sale, and have since made other similar shipments until the whole number 

 would reach 2,000 head, and all have been used to grade up the loose-wooled, light- 

 shearing sheep so common in all parts of the range country. I have crossed the con- 

 tinent seventeen times, but have found no better sheep country than the free moun- 

 tain ranges in this Territory in summer, and the American desert in winter. The 

 only shelter that 99 out of 100 sheep get is God's great and glorious firmament. Our 

 best market for wool is Nephi or Salina, and for mutton every herd is visited by 

 buyers. 



