22 shi-:ep, origix axd history. 



sands for breeding purposes alone. "While the importations for 

 breeding purposes have been large, the number of sheep in .the 

 United States has decreased rather than increased in the last 

 twenty years, which at first glance appears remarkable when 

 the increasing consumption of mutton as a food is taken into 

 consideration, and it can only be accounted for by the decrease 

 in the price of wool, which made the handling of large herds 

 of wool sheep unprofitable to the flock owner. 



We find that in 1879 there were all told in the United 

 States 38,123,000 sheep, and that in 1884 the top of the ladder 

 was reached, there being at that time 50,626,626 in the country. 

 From then the decline in numbers gradually progressed till in 

 1895 there were all told only 42,294,064 head, and at the 

 present time, 1899, the estimates only call for 39,114,453, a 

 most remarkable decrease since 1884; and when the increase in 

 population and increasing popularity of mutton as an article of 

 diet for the home market, as well as the growing demand from 

 abroad is taken into account, that there should be a decrease in 

 numbers since 1879 of nearly half a million head, and from 

 1884 to 1898 of a decrease of 11,512,173 head, makes the fact 

 become all the more surprising. It would certainly appear 

 Teasonable that now is the time to embark in sheep husbandry, 

 i:he demand for feeders increasing every year. Every year new 

 feeding grounds are springing up in the ^Vest till at the present 

 time the breeding and feeding of sheep has risen to be the most 

 profitable branch of stock-raising in which the farmer can 

 •enffaee. 



