46 MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF SHEEP 



States and Canada sheep may be grown in fine form for 

 wool production, but on these they cannot be finished. 

 To secure good finish they must usuall}^ be taken to other 

 areas where food is more abundant. The same is true 

 even in a more marked degree of sheep grown on the 

 ranges of Australia. 



Sheep will maintain themselves on vegetation dry 

 and parched at certain seasons providing the grazing is 

 sufficient for their needs. The grasses in such areas usu- 

 ally cure while retaining their hold on the soil. They 

 will produce wool, though not of the highest type, in bet- 

 ter form relatively than they will produce mutton. To 

 furnish mutton of the highest class the element of suc- 

 culence must be abundantly present. When the range 

 lands are remote from markets, wool may be transported 

 much more cheaply than mutton in proportion to the rela- 

 tive value of the two products. The value of a pound of 

 wool is usually several times the value of a pound of 

 mutton on foot; hence the cost of marketing wool is pro- 

 portionately less. This furnishes one explanation as to 

 why wethers on the arable farm are more commonly mar- 

 keted in the lamb form, whereas on the ranges several 

 clips of wool are taken before they are sold. The former 

 grow mutton most cheaply while less than one year old, 

 and are usually marketed cheaply, whereas the marketing 

 of the latter is relatively costly. 



Where a country is but sparsely settled the demand 

 for mutton is correspondingly light. The more densely 

 peopled the country is, other things being equal, the 

 greater relatively is the demand for mutton. The more 

 intense the range conditions, therefore, the more the 

 profit relatively that comes from giving attention to the 

 production of wool rather than to the production of mut- 

 ton. 



Conditions favorable to mutton production — The 

 conditions favorable to mutton production mainly are : 

 (i) Lands valuable and productive; (2) climates favor- 



