352 SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



Sheep have attained great perfection during the last few years, and a 

 single sheep has sold as high as $10,000 for breeding purposes. At the 

 present time mutton is in considerable demand as an article of food, and 

 while neither the wool, pelt, nor flesh bring exhorbitant prices, yet 

 there is the fact that every part of the sheep is salable, and sheep rais- 

 ing is as profitable as any other of the various industries of the farm. 



The perfection to which the sheep has grown as a wool producer, is 

 shown by the fact that while the number of sheep in the United States 

 has within the past quarter of a century doubled, the quantity of wool pro- 

 duced has quadrupled. 



Wool. By consulting statistics we will readily understand why the 

 production of wool has been the one purpose which our sheep breeders 

 have had in view. Beginning with the year 1825 we find wool selling 

 at seventy cents per pound, and the average price for twenty-five years 

 from that time was over fifty-four cents per pound. Beginning again 

 with 1850, we find wool selling at an average for the next quarter of a 

 century of over fifty-five cents per pound, and during that time, from 

 July, 1864, until the following spring it sold for one dollar per pound. 

 No wonder breeders were stimulated to produce wool; no wonder they 

 seemed to forget the carcass; and I believe that never in the history of 

 breeding was greater advance made than was made by the breeders of 

 this time who produced the American Merino sheep, which as a wool 

 producer has no successful rival. Beginning again with the year 1875 

 we find for the next twelve years fine wool sold at an average of only 

 forty-one cents per pound, and from that time to the present the market 

 has drifted downward until now wool has become so low that sheep- 

 raisers are paying more attention to the production of flesh. 



Mutton. The most reliable market reports, as well as the experi- 

 tnce of our best authorities, prove conclusively the following facts : 



1. For the past few years mutton has sold at a higher average price 

 per pound than either beef or pork. 



2. A given amount or value of food will produce more pounds of mut- 

 ton ihan of beef or pork. 



3. The relative increase in the consumption of mutton is greater than 

 in any other kind of meat. 



Then in selecting sheep for the farm, remember the demand for a 

 better class of mutton, and secure the best blood attainable for this 

 purpose. 



