EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER 687 



feeders on the prairie farms, weigh from 100 to 230 pounds, give 8 to 

 12 pounds of wool, and for a mutton sheep are good shearers. For 

 many years the Cotswolds were the favorite mutton slieei) of the Htate. 

 Thousands, pure-bred and grades, were Introduced into the State from 

 Canada and crossed on the Merino ewes, producing a grade which was 

 very popular. The Cotswolds have declined, and their places have 

 been filled by the Shropshires. A ShropshireCotswold cross is still 

 adhered to by some farmers with profitable results. One who makes 

 the raising of February lambs a specialty, and finds it more profitable 

 than any other animal industry, states that he wintered 62 ewes of this 

 cross breed to a Shropshire ram, that dropped 84 lambs in February. 

 He fed them during the winter one-half an ear of corn and 1 to IJ 

 pounds of hay per day each, and never had sheej) to do better. He cut 

 his clover bay and sheaf oats into one-fourth-inch pieces, and fed corn, 

 oats, bran, and hay at stated times, but generally corn and hay only. 

 He found much profit in the manure, and had three times as much corn 

 irom blue-grass fields where sheep had been pastured as his neighbors, 

 who had not kept sheep, got from similar land. There are a few Lin- 

 colnshires in the State, but they are not much sought after. They eat 

 about one-third more than the Merinos and require rich pastures, but 

 they have a compensation in final results, a good carcass and long 

 wool. The full-blood Lincolnshires will not flock as weU as the Merinos 

 or Shropshires, but they are an excellent sheep for the farmer who 

 follows mixed husbandry. The Lincoln-Merino cross produces good 

 medium wool, a weighty fleece, 10 to 12 pounds, and a heavier carcass 

 than many of the other crosses, lambs 6 months old 100 pounds and 

 over, at 12 months 140 to 160 pounds. There are a few Leicesters, but 

 they are not attracting much attention. ISTear the cities, where the 

 choicest early lambs and the best mutton are demanded, the South- 

 downs are raised. The cross of the Southdown ram on a common 

 Merino ewe produces a fine lamb and a good mutton sheep. 



The raiser of mutton sheep in Indiana, as a rule, makes less com- 

 plaint of depression in prices than any other person engaged in gen- 

 eral farming or stock raising. Prices at times have been very low and 

 discouraging. But there has not been a time when a well cared for 

 flock would not yield wool enough to pay for its keeping, thus leaving 

 the lambs as clear profit, with the additional profit of fattening the 

 ewes and selling them at a fair advance on their cost. Indiana is not 

 what is termed a wool-growing State, but it is a sheep-raismg State, and 

 with the great increase in fine English sheep, with more intelligent 

 attention to the details of breeding and feeding, it is safe to predict that 

 it will assume a position in the front rank. 



The number of sheep, the amount of wool clipped, and the average 

 of wool per head, are shown in the following table. The figures from 

 1840 to 1880 are as returned by the United States census. The num- 

 ber of sheep for 1890 is from the estimates of the Department of Agri- 



