834 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



pamper them. Give my rams plenty of exercise, but never let them loose with the 

 ewes at breeding time. The sheep business is only beginning to develop in Iowa. 

 Here we have the best of climate for sheep, the rolling land affording the finest blue 

 grass pastures, and soil that will produce abundance of grain, grass, and vegetables. 



George T. Underbill, Knoxville, Marion County : 



Have been in the business twelve years, and believe that I have the oldest estab- 

 lished flock of imported and registered Shropshires in the State. The verdict of 

 three-fourths of the farmers you meet is that sheep pay better than any other kind 

 of live stock. There is a bright future in store for the shepherd. The demand for 

 mutton is daily increasing, and even while the price of wool is down it pays all ex- 

 penses for wintering and summering the sheep, while mutton, which is the biggest 

 item, is clear profit. We have no obstacles here worth mentioning, but many natural 

 advantages for the business, such as rolling, self-draining lands no marsh lands, so 

 detrimental to the sheep industry. In winter we feed plenty of hay, some corn and 

 oats, and house during stormy weather only ; in summer let our sheep run on pasture, 

 and in the fall, after hay is cut, they have our meadows. 



W. K. Kouze, Tracy, Marion County : 



My experience with sheep for the past ten years has been that for my outlay and 

 care it has returned to me each year all the money that was first invested in it, and 

 still I have more than my original investment, or, in other words, it has made me 100 

 per cent. In winter, at nights, I house my sheep in a well-ventilated barn, and give 

 them a full feed of hay, and in the day they run in stalk-fields and pasture, with one 

 good grain ration. In summer they run on pasture with plenty of good water; are 

 corralled in dry lots by night; I use plenty of bells. About one-fifth of the farmers 

 in this county are extensively engaged in sheep-raising, and they are prospering, 

 building good sheep barns and raising winter lambs to ship to early market. We 

 experience our greatest difficulty from dogs and wolves. Some scab is being intro- 

 duced from sheep shipped from the western ranges. 



David Jay, Blakesburg, Wapello County : 



I have handled sheep for twenty years, but have not kept as large flocks as some 

 farmers. The sheep industry is improving and the outlook is favorable; and why 

 should it not be, since sheep 'are better cared for than formerly? We find better 

 profits in fewer sheep. We are improving the breeds and looking after the mutton 

 qualities as well as the wool. Tell our brother shepherds to get the best sires of 

 whatever class or breed they prefer, then if they have a love for sheep they are fixed 

 for the business and will stick to it ; giving it the same care and attention that they 

 would to succeed in any other undertaking, we will guarantee that " Mary's little 

 lamb" will pay the mortgage on the farm. 



Capt. W. H. Jordan, Des Moines, Polk County: 



From 1851 to 1861 I handled Merinos in Washington County, Mich. Then in 1889 I 

 began importing Shropshires and Oxfords in Iowa. These I arn fully convinced 

 are the sheep to make the mutton cross. Iowa, with her blue-grass pastures the 

 year round, with dry, rolling land and no long rainy seasons, can produce as success- 

 fully the great English mutton and wool-bearing sheep as Great Britain. There are 

 in Iowa to-day no domestic animals thought of and talked so much about as sheep. 

 There are no other domestic animals so much needed in our economic outfit to round 

 out and complete the triumphant ascendency and possibilities of Iowa's live-stock 

 industry as the pure-bred, wool-bearing mutton sheep; and yet no other division of 

 our stock industry, great or small, is so crippled and held back from golden oppor- 

 tunities easily within reach as sheep-raising within this State. Indians, wolves, and 

 dogs were first on the ground, and have stood face to face the natural enemies to 

 civilization and sheep-raising. The Indians long since disappeared, but the dogs 

 and wolves remain. 



