ilO SilEEP FARMING IN AMERICA. 



in sheep values, about 1894, in Texas a rancher 

 started to market with a train load of sheep. He 

 got drunk in Kansas City and the sheep went 

 on without him, sold, but not for enough to pay 

 the freight. He therefore received a letter from 

 his commission firm asking him to remit for the 

 freight, and they in turn received a telegram 

 from him saying, "I have no money; am send- 

 ing on more sheep." 



THE HOPEFUL OUTLOOK. 



The writer believes, however, that the days of 

 ruinous prices for sheep are over. The capacity 

 of our country to consume sheep has grown 

 very enormously. The mutton-eating habit, 

 once formed, is retained. Mutton is indeed an 

 economical meat to buy, since in chops one can 

 buy small amounts more easily than in beef 

 steaks; thus the high price does not so much 

 count. And mutton, especially lamb mutton, is 

 consumed by the well-to-do, a steadily increas- 

 ing class in our country. It is hard to believe 

 that there will ever again be such a Waterloo 

 as the last decade of the Nineteenth Century 

 brought. And yet the writer wishes to prevent 

 his friends from rushing heedlessly to buy when 

 prices are the highest, and to caution them from 

 following the example of the Texan and giving 

 their flocks away merely because they are tem- 

 porarily depressed. 



A WOEK TO BE DONE. 



There is a great work remaining to be done 

 on our ranges that is to build up the quality 



