110 Circular No. 18. 



of the small farm flock is with us and from all indications it 

 is to become of great importance on the waste lands of these 

 regions. Probably no section of the country is more ideally 

 located or adapted to sheep raising than Kentucky and sec- 

 tions of Tennessee and Virginia. Here we find large areas of 

 upland, excellent for sheep grazing, which produce little or 

 nothing in the way of live stock. True, this land is often too 

 rough to cultivate, but left in grass it affords the best of feed 

 for sheep. 



Sheep raising goes hand in hand with any successful, per- 

 manent system of agriculture. It is a valuable asset to any 

 farm. Sheep are not adapted to a changing, temporary farm- 

 ing enterprise, and for that reason no sheep are found in a 

 community of dissatisfied renters who move every spring. 

 Invariably, it might be said that where these little balance wheels 

 of the farm industry are found, there usually exists a substantial, 

 prosperous, satisfied neighborhood. 



While it is not desirable to make any state a strictly sheep 

 region, regardless of her other advantages, both agricultural 

 and industrial, yet, in order to develop the most successful 

 system of permanent agriculture, sheep are a real necessity 

 and should be an important factor in the different farm enter- 

 prises. 



Decrease in Sheep Industry. 



At the present time, Kentucky ranks sixteenth in line of 

 sheep production in the United States. This State, as well as 

 most of the eastern and middle western states, has been rapidly 

 depleting the farm flocks. In 1903, there were over 64,000,000 

 sheep in the United States, while today there are less than 

 49,000,000. Several causes have brought this about, such as low 

 prices for wool and mutton in the past, the tendency toward 

 dairying in some regions and toward grain farming in others, 

 the depletion of the western flocks and the ravages of dogs. 

 Other lines of farming have seemed more attractive during the 

 past ten years and, as a result, the sheep industry has rapidly 

 declined. Kentucky, last year, saw a decrease of 77,000 head and 



