846 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



States. Her wonderful agricultural resources, her natural grazing ad- 

 vantages, and her location in the interior of the United States far from 

 the seaports, all admirably adapt her as one of the greatest live-stock 

 feeding centers of this continent. 



The following official figures show the increase in the sheep industry 

 during the past thirty years: In 1860 there were in the State 2,355 

 sheep; in 1870, 22,725; in 1880, 199,453; in 1890, 239,400. 



It must be remembered that thousands of sheep are fed in the State 

 that are not enumerated in the above* These sheep are driven or 

 shipped into the State from the West about October or November, fed 

 and made ready for market in from three to four months, then shipped 

 out, so the assessor does not get them listed for taxing ; hence no offi- 

 cial record is made of them. 



The greatest number of sheep fed in Nebraska in any one year was 

 during the winter of 1889 and 1890, when the number reached 625,000 

 head. This was following the year of a big corn crop. The next winter, 

 1890 and 1891, there were 550,000 head fed, and this was following the 

 year when the corn crop was light and hay reached $18 per ton. On 

 the whole, it was a disastrous year for feeding, and considerable money 

 was lost in the business. The result was that a less number were fed 

 the past winter, which was by far a more profitable year for the busi- 

 ness. Dodge County was the banner sheep-feeding county a year ago, 

 when not far from 200,000 sheep were fed. Last winter the number 

 fed in this county did not exceed 35,000 head. The past winter the 

 heaviest feeding was carried on a little farther west in Hall, Merrick, 

 Buffalo, and Kearney counties, along the Platte, Loup, and Wood 

 rivers ; also in Jefferson and Gage counties. The favorite location with 

 sheepmen is where there is an abundance of hay, and where corn, oats, 

 and mill stuffs can be had cheaply, and then it is very desirable to get 

 where the rainfall is light, so as to have as little mud as possible. It 

 hardly seems possible that so many sheep can be fattened in from 

 seventy-five to one hundred days, when so few of them are housed or 

 protected from stormy weather, yet it is safe to say that nine-tenths of 

 the sheep fed in this State have no shelter whatever, more than what 

 is given by the board fences around the feed lots or hayracks. Often 

 where board sheds are provided the most of the sheep will stand out 

 in the snow or rain until their fleeces are quite wet, then go dripping 

 under the sheds until it is muddier and worse there than it is outside. 

 Sheep to do well need dry, comfortable quarters, with as little commo- 

 tion about them as possible; clean, dry troughs to feed from; clean 

 water and racks for hay into which they can not get their feet. It is 

 next to impossible to fatten a poor sheep in cold weather. 



It is estimated that it will take from 1 J to 2 bushels of corn per day to 

 feed 100 head of sheep, but it will not average a bushel and a half a day 

 per hundred head for a hundred days, the average time of feeding, yet 

 grant that it takes 2 bushels, and we find that all the sheep raised and 



