318 



PRODUCTIVE FEEDING OF FARM ANIMALS 



Growing Mutton Sheep, Estimated Requirements (Including 

 Maintenance Requirements) per Head Daily 



Types of Sheep. — Sheep are kept for two more or less distinct 

 purposes : For production of wool and for meat production. Accord- 

 ing to the particular breed kept, emphasis is laid on one or the other 

 of these purposes. We have representatives of both kinds of sheep 

 in this country (Figs. 87, 88, and 89) : The range sheep, which are 

 primarily wool producers, and the general farm sheep, "which 

 should be considered, first of all, a producer of mutton and handled 

 so that it will yield the chief source of income through its mutton 

 lambs." 



The range areas devoted to sheep raising, like those used for 

 cattle raising, are gradually diminishing with the settlement of 

 western lands by the farmer, but they still furnish our main supply 

 of sheep. The numbers of sheep on farms or ranges in this country 

 have diminished with each decade from 1880 to 1910, while our 

 population increased over 80 per cent during the same period, from 

 50,000,000 people in 1880 to 92,000,000 in 1910. There has also 

 been a gradual decrease in sheep kept on farms in the eastern and 

 northern States. Sheep raising in these States and on western 

 farms, on land adapted to the production of early lambs and fatten- 

 ing of mature sheep, seems likely, however, to be of increasing im- 

 portance in the future, as the demand for good mutton increases 

 and prices advance, as they are bound to do, with our rapidly- 

 increasing population and the decreasing ratio of farm animals to 

 population. The primary conditions for success with sheep, as with 

 other farm animals, lie, first, in keeping animals that are adapted for 

 the purpose in view, preferably pure-breds, or sired by a pure-bred 

 ram; and, second, the feeding and caring for these so as to obtain 

 the best results possible under the special conditions surrounding 

 each flock. 



Sheep are primarily grazing animals ; they serve a special purpose 

 on the farm by being able to utilize feed that is not adapted to, or 

 cannot be used by, other classes of farm animals; stubble fields, 

 volunteer growth, pasturage and, especially, aftermath that is too 



