FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN Sl'ATES. 209 



everywhere found among them, and everj'^- 

 where in the lead^ having a heritage of sheep- 

 keeping ancestry and tradition. 



UPS AND DOWNS OF THE BUSINESS. 



It is to be regretted that the sheep industry 

 has such remarkable ups and downs. There will 

 be a series of years when flocks on the ranges 

 make their owners very large profits. As, for 

 instance, if a thousand ewes cost the owner $3,- 

 000 and thirty rams will cost maybe $300 more. 

 The expense of keeping them will vary greatly, 

 but may be as low as 60 to 75 cents per head, or, 

 say, $772.50. It has been known that the thou- 

 sand ewes would drop and rear a thousand 

 lambs, but cutting this down to 850, they some- 

 times sell for as much as $3 each on the range, 

 or $2,550. Then the fleeces have sold recently 

 for more than a dollar per head, or $1,030 more, 

 leaving a paper profit of $2,807.50 on an invest- 

 ment of but $3,000. 



However, as there will needs be some ewes 

 die and rams to be replenished, we can take off 

 the $807.50 to put with the herd and still leave 

 a nice dividend. 



On the other hand, when times are good and 

 sheep prices high the wary operators are will- 

 ing to sell, and men with moderate or small 

 amounts of capital buy, giving mortgages on all 

 they possess for security. Thereafter (and oft- 

 times soon) things happen! Wool declines in 

 price, lambs go begging, hard seasons come and 

 ,the men find themselves often involved in abso- 

 lute ruin. It is related during the last slump 



