212 The Dawn of a New Constructive Era 



Sheep Raiser 

 Looks to 

 South as Fu- 

 ture Field 



source of wool and mutton production during the present cen- 

 tury. These four states in 1916, out of the total wool clip of the 

 United States of 288,000,000 pounds, produced 86,255,000 pounds, 

 or about thirty per cent. 



There has been during the past seven years, however, a con- 

 tinued shrinkage in the production from these four states, caused 

 by the overstocking of the ranges. During the session of the 

 last Congress an Act was passed, opening up the Government 

 lands in this section to the farmers in tracts of 640 acres. We 

 sent a special agent into this section, toi make a survey of condi- 

 tions and to locate breeding stock ; and the reports we have re- 

 ceived from him and from other sources, indicate that there is a 

 great rush of farmers coming into this section, taking up these 

 640-acre tracts, and in consequence the range is being broken up 

 to such a great extent that those who have been maintaining 

 sheep there are being forced to dispose of their flocks, and the 

 evidence is conclusive, and our records show, that there will be 

 a decrease during the next two years of about thirty per cent 

 from this section. And, moreover, the evidence shows that there 

 will be a continuing decline of production from this section for 

 many years to come. It is quite evident, therefore, that the 

 population of the United States will be seriously affected by this 

 rapid decline in this great sheep territory, and there is only one 

 source left open now from which we can obtain an increase of 

 sheep production, and that is in the farming sections east of the 

 Mississippi River and in the unused land areas of the South. 



In all matters, political, social and economic, change is the 

 law of the universe. As in the past, economic conditions oper- 

 ated to drive the shepherd of the East our of business, and to 

 develop the great sheep interests on the western grazing lands, 

 so today again, economic conditions are forcing the western 

 flockmaster out of business, and opening up a favorable oppor- 

 tunity for the profitable maintenance and development of the 

 sheep industry in the older sections, which have been so long 

 neglected. 



We, of course, understand that the abnormal conditions 

 created by this great war will not continue indefinitely. The 

 demand for the armies of the warring nations is tremendous, and 

 there is a certain amount of credit inflation, which tends to ad- 

 vance prices above a normal level. It is quite natural that the 

 question arises as to what will be the conditions as to prices 



