610 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



in time induce them to give sheep a place on American farms as generally as is now 

 done in some other countries. 



It is not the peculiar methods of English sheep -raisers that I would have the farm- 

 ers of this country follow with rigid exactness; it is their persistent, intelligent 

 determination to obtain the type of sheep best suited to each particular locality, and 

 through this to secure profits from whatever product of the soil that such sheep can 

 utilize to better advantage than can be secured by any other means. With wool and 

 mutton for some of the time selling at nearly the same price per pound, the English 

 breeder has been encouraged on the extreme policy of devoting more attention to car- 

 cass development than to improvement in the character and weight of fleece — just as 

 breeders in the United States have been encouraged by the liigher relative price of 

 wool here to overlook the carcass and give prime consideration to iieece. 



To Mr. Garland's mind, among the most encouraging aspects of the 

 sheep husbandry of the United States was the fact that so many Merino 

 breeders were zealously working to get good mutton and big fleeces 

 from the same animals, and he was glad to know that some of them 

 had already succeeded. And they had succeeded with the type of 

 sheep within their reach, material that was economically and readily 

 available. 



And for the present, and indefinitely in the future, the majority of flocks on Illinois 

 farms will have a foundation of grade animals upon which should be used pure-bred 

 rams of such type as the owner may deem best after a careful study of his surround- 

 ings. Starting at this point, jjlacing the standard high, rigidly culling out from the 

 breeders all animals that fall short, and giving to the remainder the best possible 

 facilities for rapid and extreme development, will very soon secure a flock that will 

 pay its way, no matter what the market for sheep products. It is the inferior and 

 medium products of the farm that hang heavy on tlie mai'ket and compel concessions 

 to buyers. The best of its kind not only sells promptly, but it sells at the top of the 

 market, and sheep products are no exception to tlie rule. 



MICHIGAN. 



We preface our sketch of the Merino sheep of Michigan by adopting 

 the language of the Michigan Merino Kegister in presenting its favor- 

 able condition and the natural advantages of the State in 1885: 



Possessing, as she does, a variety of soils and surface yielding a number of grasses, 

 both natural and tame, with large belts of partially cleared lands, which have been 

 stripped of their best timber by our lumbering companies (especially north of lati- 

 tude 43°), where the grade Merino sheep can be kept for a double purpose, being 

 especially adapted to subduing such lands as well as producing wool and mutton, 

 Michigan is a natural habitat of the Merino sheep, made such by her soil and cli- 

 mate, while they are needed to keep up the fertility of her lands and work up the 

 straw in winter (which is anaturalresult of theimmensecropof wheat raised Avithin 

 her borders), and prepare it for use in nourshiug the soil whi.-h such crops neces- 

 . sarily draw upon so heavily. This State also promises uninterrupted prosperity to 

 the sheep-breeder and wool-grower from the comparative cheapness of her lands 

 and the condensed form of her products, which renders remote markets available to 

 them which otherwise they would be unable to reach. 



Tlie Merino sheep saw the State at the beginning of its prosperity— 

 in fact it grew up with the country— and when the pioneer had killed 

 the wolf and made a clearing the valuable Merino was there to clear 



