856 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



natural home over cheap lands and in sparse settlements. Around centers of indus- 

 try spring up, by a natural law, the mutton on the mutton- wool sheep. The change 

 of market facilities, aided by transportation rates and the decline in wool values, 

 has ushered in new demands in sheep husbandry that we must meet. Good mutton 

 is worth twice as much as the wool it brings, and it is not to be sacrificed to the lesser 

 product. The mutton-wool sheep is much more prolific than the wool sheep, and 

 sends its young to market the first season, and upon the cheapest food grass. We 

 have grown but 5.18 pounds of wool per sheep as an accompaniment of indifferent 

 mutton. We shall increase this amount 50 per cent along with a more rapid inarch 

 of mutton improvement. Nature developed the sheep on high, dry lands or moun- 

 tains, in a dry atmosphere, on sweet, varied, nutritious grasses, and gave to it little 

 rebound of character. Art has developed sheep in their higher forms over drained 

 soil or on dry upland hills ; has surrounded them with shelter, nourished them with 

 varied and appropriate diet, and watched over their yielding natures with care. 

 Good sheep are the products of the highest agriculture and thrive only Avith it, pin- 

 ing under neglect as no other domestic animals do. We have exposed the sheep in 

 our State to the burning sun of our prairie sections, while by the strongest instinct 

 they are impelled to seek the protecting company of trees. We have thrust them 

 over our wet plains, to find that their inbred traits will not bend to these unnatural 

 conditions. Aside from the direct mischiefs of wet soil, the character of the grasses 

 grown upon them has not been of the nature required by sheep. Nature has given 

 us conditions favorable to the permanent success of sheep husbandry in this State. 

 The dry hills and pure water of south Missouri and the rolling limestone and blue- 

 grass sections of central and north Missouri are favorable. It is upon limestone soil 

 that sheep have secured their highest development. Our climate is not warm enough 

 to raise the question of the deleterious influence of heat on the amount and quality 

 of the shear. The largest clip per flock that it has been my pleasure to note was 

 taken by a well-known Missouri sheep-breeder, namely, an average of 16f pounds for 

 160 ewes, while the quality of our best wools is hard to beat. While the summers 

 do not depress, the rigors of winter are not so great as farther north, making our 

 latitude favorable. 



While nature has highly favored us in most of the great essentials for successful 

 sheep husbandry, she has left to art the work of making the wet places dry, without 

 which we may not hope for the highest success. The other requirements of art in 

 Missouri are shelter, a well-balanced diet, and skill in handling of a high order. The 

 value of sheep in clearing a pasture of weeds and bushes, their clinging to the sum- 

 mit of hills, from whence their evenly scattered excrements nourish the hillsides as 

 that of no other animal do, their double income are oft-told tales, always important 

 and too often unappreciated. 



Sheep husbandry Avill thrive here when we shake off our drifting and shiftless way 

 of handling this interest and establish a well-organized system of management 

 based upon a knowledge of the nature and demands of sheep, and it will not thrive 

 until then. Onr best sheep are only artificial products, and will thrive only on the 

 conditions that made them such. 



The philosophy of feeding, as applied to domestic animals as a whole, may be 

 summed up as follows, viz : A certain ratio of albuminoids (the muscle-making parts 

 of food) to the carbohydrates and fats (heat, force, and fat-producing materials of 

 food) in foods is most efficient per unit of food given. This ratio of albuminoids to 

 carbohydrates should vary with the age and purpose for which an animal is fed. To 

 feed too little of one or too much of the other results in waste. As foods are complex, 

 varying widely in their ratio of the above nutriment, and the wants of animals are 

 very varied, feeding affords a fine field for the use of intelligence on the part of a 

 farmer. Science teaches that which good observers confirm, to wit, that sheep 

 require finer and more easily digestible foods than cattle. Those of us who are try- 

 ing to run counter to these facts of nature ought not to feel disappointed if we reap 



