The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 



211 



But with the advance of the farming element, restricting the 

 areas of cheap land, Texas dropped in 1915 to 1,600,000 sheep. 

 In California we find as follows : 



During this early period it should be noted that sheep were 

 kept for the wool product alone. We were educated as a beef- 

 eating people, and our immense supplies of cattle made beef 

 cheap. Mutton at that time was an insignificant factor in the 

 profit and loss account. This situation has now changed com- 

 pletely. The supply of cattle is decreasing so materially that 

 beef is advancing greatly. Mutton and lamb have been improved 

 in quality, and there is a good demand for it today. Results care- 

 fully taken at the Pennsylvania State College show that the mut- 

 ton product of sheep represents about two-thirds, whilst wool 

 today represents about one-third, making wool a by-product ; so 

 that the market fluctuations in wool, which will always occur 

 to a certain extent, will not have any great effect on the profit 

 account of the sheep industry. 



With restriction of the cheap lands in Texas and California, 

 the bands of sheep were driven up into the mountainous grazing 

 limits of the northwestern section, and there we find for many 

 years a great increase in the number of sheep, especially in the 

 states of Wyoming. Idaho and Montana. But here, too, within 

 the last few years, we can find the same cause operating a de- 

 crease in the flocks — the homesteader and farmer are coming in, 

 the ranges are restricted, and production has decreased. In ef- 

 fect, the whole industry has moved like a great wave, on the lines 

 of least resistance, utilizing cheap grazing lands as long as they 

 were cheap, and showing a decrease as soon as they were occu- 

 pied for agricultural purposes. 



The great Northwestern grazing territory, comprising the 

 states of Montana. Idaho, Wyoming and Oregon, containing vast 

 areas of free or very cheap grazing lands, has been the great 



Wool, Once 

 Chief Factor, 

 Now a 

 liij-Prodiict 



Western Graz- 

 ing Area 

 Constantly 

 Dwindling 



