982 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



often because they can live and return some income with little care or 

 experience. In districts remote from the market, like Douglas and 

 Jackson counties, both by nature fine pastoral districts, sheep hus- 

 bandry is rapidly diminishing under the causes already named and the 

 increased development of fruit-raising as a chief pursuit. The assess- 

 ment rolls of 1891 show a decrease of sheep in Jackson County from 

 24,791 in 1885 to 6,956 in 1891. The same causes, and, in addition, 

 the increase of the coyote pest and negligent ignoring of the scab law, 

 have reduced the number of sheep kept in Douglas County from 109,- 

 443 in 1885 to 42,024 in 1891. The decrease in western Oregon during 

 the same period has been from 385,566 in 1885 to 135,754 in 1891. The 

 revival of interest in the industry is most manifest near the local 

 markets for mutton, in western Oregon and in the arid land districts 

 of eastern Oregon, where wool and mutton production is a special pur- 

 suit. 



East of the Cascade range in Oregon and Washington lies the arid 

 land district of both the States, in which sheep-raising and wool- grow- 

 ing are conducted under an American modification of the method which 

 was pursued with the traveling flocks in Spain prior to its invasion by 

 the first Napoleon. The American improved Spanish Merino sheep is 

 the breed most used. The industry, however, is not defended by spe- 

 cial local laws nor in the interest of a special class. The very poorest 

 men may, and often do, enter the business with their labor only, by 

 undertaking to care for a flock purchased by the capital of others. 

 Contracts of this kind are generally for a term of years, under condi- 

 tions intended to secure a fair division of the income from the flocks be- 

 tween the owner and the lessee. It is the general practice to winter 

 their flocks on the lower plains and in the sheltered valleys through 

 which the smaller streams cut their way to the rivers. The narrow 

 strips of interval land of these valleys (or canyons, as they are often 

 called) are depended on to furnish winter forage in case it is found 

 necessary to feed. The flocks are generally kept on the winter range 

 until the lambs are marked and the sheep are shorn. Both of these 

 operations are usually finished during the month of May, the lowest 

 and best- sheltered ranges being the earliest. 



As the country fills up with settlers and available lands for home- 

 steads are taken (and they are nearly all taken now, especially along 

 the water courses), the system of renting flocks is changing in favor of 

 the homestead settler, the ownership of the land controlling water 

 places being an important consideration as a means of securing the 

 benefit of feeding on the public lands in the vicinity. As settlement 

 for this purpose extends, the freedom and advantages of grazing on 

 the public domain are diminished and the trouble and expense of 

 keeping sheep in this manner increase from year to year. The pas- 

 turing capacity of these public lands is also steadily decreased by over- 

 stocking. Every keeper of stock, of whatever kind, is trying to get 



