WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 857 



im-urrr results. \\t_-t grounds grow courser, more indigestible, and less aromatic and 

 palatable grasses than dry lands do. Upon such lands sheep feed only under neces- 

 sity. Nor do they take kindly to the coarse hays for a winter feed. The stems of 

 timothy and rank clover are not favored by them. Sheep are more responsive to 

 green food than cattle are. I would advise the use of roots in limited qualities for 

 breeding ewes before yeaning, because they are valuable for all animals before drop- 

 ping their young, relaxing the rigidity of the muscular system and antagonizing the 

 costive condition that is peculiar to breeding ewes. By such feeding the death rate 

 of lambs and fever and debility of the ewe will be reduced to the minimum. Our 

 dry hay and straw, accompanied by foul water for drink,- with the carbonaceous or 

 heating, concentrated food, corn meal, give a tremendous death rate of both ewes 

 and lambs with us in Missouri. 



The factor of shelter is an important one, and belongs to the economy of feeding. 

 Boards are cheaper heat-savers than hay is a heat-producer. Shingles are more 

 economical than sheets of water, and a dry bed far better than a couch of mud. 



By nature the sheep is unfitted for dampness, and the artificial open-wool breeds 

 particularly are responsive to cold rains, which saturate the wool, afterwards to 

 undergo slow evaporation, thus undermining the health of the animal and bringing 

 on catarrh and other troubles. 



GENERAL FACTS ABOUT THE INDUSTRY. 



The sheep industry of Missouri is only one of the many and varied 

 resources of the State, and the fact that the industry is of as much 

 importance as it is to-day is owing to the stability of the men engaged 

 in the business. Especially is this so in view of the adverse circum- 

 stances and environments which have beset the industry during its 

 entire history. It is a fact, and not mere flattery, to state that the 

 sheep-owners are the best and most successful farmers in the State. 

 They are citizens who would be a credit to any State, and certainly 

 deserve the prosperity they now enjoy. They deserve as a class much 

 more credit than the sheep-owners in most of the farming States of the 

 AVest, for having sustained the industry against adverse circumstances 

 which almost demoralized it in the other States. During the dark 

 hours of sheep industry they did not, as a class, abandon the friendless 

 slice}): and now that the business is on the up-grade the men who have 

 been faithful to this much-abused domestic animal are in a much better 

 position than those who deserted it. 



\Vhile there are not quite as many sheep in the aggregate in Missouri 

 as in some former years, yet there are nearly as many flocks. These 

 flocks, though smaller in size, are of better quality. The sheep is a 

 much more profitable animal to-day than it ever was before. The busi- 

 ness is confined almost exclusively to the general farmers of the State. 

 There are very few stockmen who make a specialty or exclusive busi- 

 ness of sheep-raising. It is rather an essential part of mixed hus- 

 bandry. While there are sheep in nearly every county in Missouri, the 

 aggregate for any one county is not large. Kot one farmer in ten has 

 a flock of sheep. These farm flocks range in size from 10 to as high as 

 500 head, with a general average of from 50 to 100. The flocks owned 

 by breeders of thoroughbreds are generally much larger, ranging from 



