The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 197 



of utilizing his lands, he came to the point where he did not want 

 to dispose of them. 



The possibilities and opportunities in sheep raising are much 

 less well understood than in cattle raising. There have been a 

 good many reasons for that up to this date. Those reasons no 

 longer exist. During the last five years, or two years, the sheep 

 business of this country has come in on an entirely new basis. 

 For your guidance in the future you don't have to study the 

 history of the question at all. 



The reasons for saying you don't have to study the .history 

 of the sheep business are briefly these: Up to this time the 

 sheep of the world have been kept on the new lands, where 

 they could go into the sheep business without preparation, and 

 because in many cases they would produce and carry nothing World Scare- 

 hut sheep. That has been the case in our western states, Aus- ity of Sheep 

 tralia. South America and Africa and other countries. In those o"*^ Wool 

 areas, however, those conditions have passed. Those grazing 

 lands are being used for other purposes. Ultimately, no doubt, 

 they will carry larger numbers of cattle and sheep than they 

 carried when used for pasture purposes. In the meantime, there 

 is a very serious shortage of sheep meat and wool the world over. 



Those conditions are disappearing and, as a consequence, the 

 prices of sheep products, especially, have gone up. We face 

 today a condition where lambs are worth 15 cents a pound on 

 the hoof. When you consider it is a safe proposition to put a 

 lamb on the market at 70 pounds, you will understand some- 

 thing of its possibilities. At the same time it is hard to say, 

 without having seen the market reports of the hour, what the 

 prices of wool are. They are very high, but largely because of 

 conditions that were in evidence before and will exist after the 

 war. 



This passing of the pasturage parts of the country has 

 been particularly noticeable in our western states during the last 

 three or four years, and is going further. We still have in the 

 public domain, as stated by the Commissioner of the Land Office, 

 something like 280 or 290 million acres of land which has been 

 used by the stockmen of this country for both sheep and cattle 

 grazing; and as to a comparison of the possibilities between sheep 

 and cattle let me make this statement : that with present values 

 and circumstances, and the adaptability of the country, it is a 



