PROFITABLE SYSTEMS FOR FEEDING SHEEP 67 



A few facts concerning screenings. A man who has been 

 in sheep work in this country for twenty-five years, and 

 is considered one of our best authorities on feeding and 

 marketing sheep, is willing to go on record as follows: 

 * What,' do you ask, ' is the present condition of the 

 sheep-feeding business ? ' Well, this industry is going back- 

 ward fast. All of our big feeders have either gone bankrupt 

 or gotten out of the business. We cannot get away from 

 these facts. The sheep-feeding business is losing ground and 

 losing it fast. Only a few years ago St. Paul fed from three 

 hundred and fifty thousand to five hundred thousand sheep 

 on screenings every winter; this year [1908] ten thousand 

 will cover the number fed at this point. Winona, Minne- 

 sota, fed one hundred thousand ; this year none. Wabasha, 

 Minnesota, fifty thousand ; this year five thousand. Chicago 

 feed yards have a capacity for feeding two hundred and 

 fifty thousand ; eighty thousand were fed this year. In 1907, 

 Colorado fed one million six hundred and sixty thousand; 

 this year seven hundred and fifty thousand. Every big 

 feeder from Colorado to St. Paul that stuck to it has gone 

 broke. Why ? St. Paul and Chicago points used to feed 

 wheat screenings that were chiefly made at Minnesota 

 and Wisconsin milling centers, that sold for three dollars 

 and a half per ton and previous to this were dumped into 

 the Mississippi River ; now these screenings are quoted at 

 fourteen to eighteen dollars per ton. The screenings that 

 used to sell at three dollars and a half were good, but now 

 they are principally dirt and chaff. A few mill owners and 

 some brokers got control of nearly all the screenings, and 

 they clean, reclean, mix and remix, put in a little sand, a 

 little chaff, and some mustard seed, and then land Mr. Feeder. 

 There is another man in the screening deal, the stock-food 



