706 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



years. There lias been a good demand for stock sheep, and lambs reached as high as 

 $2.25 per head. Two-year- old wethers moved easily at, $3, and in one case $3.£3 was 

 paid for a very choice lot. Ewes sold at from $2.75 to $3.50 per head. The wool 

 market opened low, and oontinned so during the season. Nearly the entire clip of 

 wool was consigned to eastern commission houses, netting the grower from 16^ to 19^ 

 cents per pound. 



Climatic conditions to this date have been favorable; sheep throughout the State 

 are in good average condition, and although feed is short, wool-growers generally 

 are fairly well provided with hay, and all indications point to 1891 as a very pros- 

 perous year for the industry. 



PAST HISTORY AND PROGRESS. 



The present development and condition of tlie sheep industry in 

 Montana are remarkable. The discouragements which beset the early 

 flockmasters, including the original control of the range by cattle 

 kings, compelled the industry to win its way strictly on its own merits. 

 The pioneers in the business deserve considerable credit for demon- 

 strating the adaptabiUty of Montana for sheep raising and overcoming 

 the obstacles which they have encountered. 



In consulting the files of the Montana Wool-Grower, the writer found 

 a communication which appeared originally in the DaUy Miner, of 

 Butte, in 1886, from the secretary of the Montana Wool-Growers' Asso- 

 ciation, from which the following extract is taken : 



It is believed that the first sheep brought into Montana were owned at the St. 

 Peter's Mission, which was established in 1859, near the mouth of the Sun Eiver. 

 However that might have been, the first authentic statistics are found in the Terri- 

 torial auditor's report for 1868, which gives the number of sheep and goats in the then 

 nine counties as 1,752, which were assessed at a total valuation of $9,685.50 or about 

 $5.50 per head. One-third of this number was given in by Madison County ; while 

 Madison, Deer Lodge, and Meagher counties contained over three-fourths of all. 



This industry, in common with most others in the Territory, did not advance very 

 rapidly for the next ten years, but in 1881 there were assessed 260,402, valued for 

 taxation purposes at $729,228.50, average of $2.80. 



The sheep that were brought to the Territory, says the Wool-Grower, came from 

 various directions, but mainly from California and Oregon. They were generally a 

 gradeMerino,manyciuiteahigh grade. Some of the early breeders, however, brought 

 in coarse-wool rams — Cotswold, Southdown and the like from Canada and the East- 

 ern States, producing at the start all grades from coarse to fine, in the larger flocks 

 of the Territory. Since that time large numbers of Merino rams have been used, 

 and the wool now largely grades fine and fine medium in many of these flocks, fully 

 95 per cent of the wool being of these grades. Of the flocks of the Territory, there 

 are probably very few that are less than half blood, while as a rule, they will run 

 half to full blood Merino. 



The following, from the Montana Stockman, differs from the Daily 

 Miner as to the traditional location of the first flock: 



Montana's sheep industry has now reached proportions which place it among the 

 main sources of revenue to the State, and the history of its growth forms a chapter in 

 local history which deserves to be placed on record. Current report states that the 

 first flock of sheep ever brought to Montana came from the Pacific coast in the sum- 

 mer of 1867, and were located somewhere in the Prickly Pear Valley, in the present 

 county of Lewis and Clarke. The band comprised about 500 head, and no provision 



