826 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



a little grain, corn or oats, or both mixed in equal parts, once and some- 

 times twice a day, to the stock sheep. Corn is the principal food used 

 to fatten for the mutton market, but to the breeding ewe very little or 

 no corn is fed. Oats and bran are considered the best grain food for 

 her. One ear of corn per day during the winter season is usually con- 

 sidered sufficient grain for stock sheep. For roughness corn fodder is 

 largely fed, but many flockmasters prefer tame hay, timothy, and clover, 

 and most of them have plenty of it; but quite a number in the State 

 use wild hay, principally blue-stem, and are very well satisfied with it, 

 as it is usually cleaner and not so dusty as tame hay, and has less chaff 

 and seed to get into the wool. A good portion of the winter the sheep 

 can be fed on the pasture or herded in the cornstalk fields. It is very 

 evident that they will take a variety of food, and be satisfied with almost 

 any kind so it is clean and not moldy. Since they are so easily satisfied 

 and require so little feed, that which they receive should be good. 

 Koots as food for sheep do not seem to be properly appreciated by Ameri- 

 can breeders, although no other country can produce more abundantly or 

 cheaply beets, rutabagas, turnips, and cabbage than ours. It is by the 

 liberal use of roots that England is enabled to produce such grand sheep 

 that American breeders and importers are willing to pay the highest 

 prices for. It will pay Iowa flockmasters well to visit their great State 

 fair and see the trained and experienced shepherds feed the large num- 

 ber of excellent show sheep exhibited there each year. 



For the summer pasturing of sheep a great portion of Iowa is unsur- 

 passed by any State in the Union. There are dry rolling lands that 

 produce an abundance of blue grass and white clover for early feed in 

 the spring; then the late meadows come in for change, followed by the 

 fine cornstalk fields, all of which furnish a variety of feed for the flocks 

 for at least ten months of the year. While Iowa lays no claim to com- 

 petition with breeders on the great western free range in producing 

 sheep in large numbers cheaply, no State can excel her in producing 

 the most valuable mutton and wool sheep. She has more farmers 

 breeding small flocks of from 50 to 200 head of pure-bred and high- 

 grade sheep of the different breeds than any other of the western farm- 

 ing States, so that N she does not boast of numbers, but of the value and 

 quality of her sheep. 



Iowa flockmasters generally have yet to learn the advantages of being 

 associated for the help of each other. In an association they can more 

 readily secure favorable legislation, protect their common interests, and 

 more easily and profitably dispose of their products by finding out the 

 best houses handling wool or muttons. In this way they can cut out 

 the dishonest dealers, give more trade to the honest ones, and thus 

 secure a less commission; in fact, make their State association a veri- 

 table bureau of information. 



Iowa already has what is known as the State Sheep-Breeders and 

 Wool-Growers' Association, with a good working membership composed 



