MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 165 



Never were prospects brighter for sheepmen than now; wool 

 and mutton are high and it looks as if the day of free wool and' 

 poverty-stricken ncckmasters has gone for good. 



Sheep are the least trouble of any farm stock, and it is safe 

 to say that anyone who will give faithful attention to business 

 can make money without drudgery from a flock. 



No animal will redeem a farm from poverty so quickly as 

 sheep, and there is plenty of land in this country that is useless 

 for anything else but sheep or goat farms. A Kansas farmer, being 

 asked what he did to get rid of the weeds on his farm, said that 

 he sold most of them as mutton, at 5 and 6 cents a pound. Not 

 only are sheep the animal to enrich the poor farm, but intensive 

 sheep farming, under prevailing wool and mutton prices, will 

 come nearer to paying 10 per cent, dividends on high-priced farms 

 than any other animal. As the writer stated some little time since, 

 the sheep situation was never more satisfactory than today, nor has 

 the industry ever had a more encouraging outlook. Wool is strong 

 in all parts of the world and prevailing conditions are likely to 

 enhance rather than weaken it. The mutton outlook is bright, 

 with every indication of improvement. Sheep are quick of sale 

 at good prices, and there are a good many more buyers than sellers. 

 There is not a single weak point in the entire sheep and wool situa- 

 tion, and the sheep is proving itself worthy of its title "The animal 

 with the golden hoof." 



There are today many people who from ten to twenty years 

 ago started in the sheep and goat business with practically no 

 capital who now find themselves in very easy circumstances and 

 have demonstrated conclusively that the foot of both the sheep 

 and the goat is golden. The flock which does not pay these days 

 gets poor care. A few years ago it was a hard matter to find 

 many who knew much about the eating qualities of mutton. Today 

 we meet few who do not know that if s one of the finest meats on 

 earth. 



An English writer recently said : "Sheep raising in this coun- 

 try has withstood the trials of the last twenty-five years in a won- 

 derful manner and if ever the sheep was a profitable animal it 

 still continues to be so," and what he says of his country is equally 

 true of this. To succeed in the business one wants to stay with it 

 year in and year out. 



HINTS TO BEGINNERS. 



Begin slow and go slow. Grow up with your work. Many 

 of our most prominent flockmasters started this way. If you start 

 with pure-bred stock, don't, start with show stock, but rather at 

 the bottom of the ladder. As an amateur you will meet discourage- 

 ments, but keep on and you will be successful in the end. If you 



