668 



SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



roots, as tliese freeze before tliey can be fed, and are thus ruined; but 

 there is no time when the sheep can not get a bite of blue grass or of 

 rye and wheat. Eed clover proves an excellent food for Kentucky 

 sheep, either green or when cut and dried, and is used with rye and 

 blue grass. The Kentuckians understand very thoroughly the art of 

 feeding and their fine flocks of sheep and herds of cattle attest the fact. 

 The sheep husbandry of Kentucky, built upon a mutton foundation, 

 has suffered less fluctuation and depression than that of the wool-grow- 

 ing States adjoining it. From 1840 to 1880 there was scarcely any 

 variation in the number kept on farms. Flocks were maintained at 

 about the same number and the increase was marketed at a fair remu- 

 neration. The proportion of sheep killed for mutton included all the 

 wethers and 30 to 40 per cent of the ewes and lambs, a rate which, com- 

 bined with the destruction caused by dogs, kept the number of the 

 flocks about stationary. And this was the point generally aimed at. 

 There were no legislative scares which in other sections decimated 

 flocks and forced an abandonment of sheep raising. Mutton as an arti- 

 cle of food is more generally appreciated in Kentucky than in most 

 States, and the home market, which is always the best everywhere and 

 for every commodity, was a good one. The average value of the sheep 

 per head exceeds that of any other State south of the Ohio, and is 

 exceeded only in a few States where high-priced breeding flocks and 

 an advanced system of feeding for early markets prevail. Since 1880 

 there has been a decline in the number of sheep. In 1880 the number 

 was 1,000,269; in 1890 it was 805,978, showing .a loss of 20 per cent. 

 But the decline in number was more than compensated for in the great 

 improvement and increased value of the lesser number. The causes 

 for the decline are twofold — the low price of mutton at some times, the 

 destruction by dogs at all times. Ten per cent of the sheep of the 

 State are annually killed by the dogs, causing an almost despairing 

 condition of sheep husbandry in many localities where the loss is heav- 

 iest, some counties losing as high as 20 per cent. 



Sheep and wool of Kentucky, 1840 to 1890. 



There has been a still furtber decrease in number to 773,336 in Jan- 

 uary, 1892, but a gratifying increase in value and marked improvement 

 in quality. 



