246 



MODERN SHEEP: BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



dividing lines to divide up the range by this plan often becomes 

 very complicated when there are several" she'ep and cattle ranches 

 scattered in different directions in the same neighborhood. 



"OLD BARE-BELLY" NOT PROFITABLE. 



Gradually, as the ranges become more crowded by incoming 

 settlers, and with higher prices received for wool, the New Mex- 

 ico sheep owners are looking more and more to breeding up their 

 flocks. It does not pay to keep bare-bellied Navajos that will 

 shear three pounds of wool per year, when by purchasing some 

 fine Eambouillet or Delaine bucks and using them carefully for 

 three or four years one can have sheep that will easily shear six 

 pounds of good wool. 



Western Scene. Shipping Wool to Market. 



The cost of keeping the three-pound Navajo is just as great 

 if not greater on account of their being extremely hard to herd, 

 then the cost of keeping the six-pound descendant, and the weth- 

 ers raised from the finer sheep leave a larger margin of profit 

 than those from the native Navajos. After taking all this into 

 consideration it is a mystery why some sheepmen insist on breed- 

 ing the old bare-bellied Navajos. As a rule these men are of the 

 native class and either don't know a fine buck when they see one 

 or else don't know where to pei fine bucks. Some of these men 

 really want to breed up their flocks, but they will go to some large 

 town like Albuquerque or Las Vegas to buy their bucks. There 

 they will find possibly a few really high-grade bucks for sale, but 



