SHEEP RAISING IN AUSTRALIA 13 



Flocks in Farming Regions. When sheepmen first skimmed 

 over the country with their extensive flocks their methods were 

 somewhat similar to those of the large owners in the West to-day, 

 who operate under what are called range conditions. That is, range 

 or pasture was plentiful and in such states as Illinois and Iowa sheep 

 were occasionally ranged in the open under the care of herders. But 

 gradually the large flocks disappeared and in their place there arose 

 small flocks which were kept in comparatively small, fenced fields. 

 These became known as farm flocks, and they now typify the sheep 

 industry of the United States in all but the western states. 



Mutton Blood. At first the Merino predominated in nearly 

 all farm flocks, but gradually English mutton breeds were intro- 

 duced until now nearly all such flocks are of mutton blood. The 

 change to mutton blood was the result of the decline in the price of 

 wool and the increase in the demand for mutton. The rise of land 

 values also had an influence, for there came a time when the sheep 

 yielding principally a fleece could not return a profit to the owner 

 of high-priced land. For the same reason mutton blood has also 

 been introduced in the far West, where range conditions still exist, 

 but it will probably always be necessary to keep on the range sheep 

 that carry a large proportion of Merino blood in order to preserve 

 the close-flocking instinct and a fleece that will withstand semi-arid 

 conditions. 



Increase in Value. The importance of the sheep industry in 

 the United States now as compared with the past cannot be deter- 

 mined by merely comparing numbers. Sheep are considerably more 

 valuable on the head basis than they were years ago, because the 

 revenue from each sheep is much greater than in days of wool grow- 

 ing only. The breeding ewe yields not only wool but also lambs 

 which are sold for mutton, and when she has passed her period of 

 usefulness as a breeder or a wool producer, either on the farm or on 

 the range, she still has a value as a mutton product. 



Sheep Raising in Australia. -Prior to 1830, sheep growing in 

 Australia had not attained commercial significance. Merino sheep 

 were introduced from the Cape of Good Hope as early as 1788 by 

 Captain Phillip, the first governor of New South Wales. In 1825 a 

 group of English capitalists formed a land company and founded a 

 large pastoral estate in Tasmania, which was then known as Van 

 Diemens Land. Between 1825 and 1830 this company spent more 

 than $145,000 in importing Merinos from Saxony ,and some of the 



