148 PROFITABLE STOCK RAISING 



and a small market demand for mutton, until at 

 present the territory east of the Mississippi has but 

 17,675,000 head, while the western farms and 

 ranges carry 38,328,000 head. 



THE DUAL-PURPOSE TYPE 



The changing conditions of the past 20 years, 

 which have caused the constant decrease in beef 

 production as compared with the population in the 

 United States, has led to a constantly increasing 

 market demand for mutton. Several of our great 

 cities today demand more than a million head of 

 sheep yearly to supply their local meat trade, while 

 a few years ago only a negligible quantity of mut- 

 ton was required. The land upon which sheep 

 are grown has constantly increased in value. Even 

 upon the free land of the western ranges, mainte- 

 nance expenses have very materially increased, so 

 that it has become no longer profitable to raise 

 sheep for the wool alone, as was commonly done 

 in the earlier history of the country. These chang- 

 ing conditions have led to a demand for a dual-pur- 

 pose type of sheep which will produce a reason- 

 able fleece, and still be of sufficient weight and 

 mutton quality that it will dress out a fair per- 

 centage of meat when placed upon the market. 

 There are probably no conditions in the United 

 States today which will justify the raising, on a 

 commercial basis, of sheep either for wool or for 

 mutton alone. This type of breeding is left en- 

 tirely to the breeders of registered animals, and is 

 not practiced by the breeders of ordinary market 

 sheep. Farm conditions demand a type of sheep 

 which will shear at least nine or ten pounds of wool 

 and which will produce a lamb which may be mar- 



