SHEEP ARE PROFITABLE 



Reports From 5,000 Farmers Show Big Profits in Sheep 



Business 



Out of over 5,000 letters received from practical sheep men 

 from nearly every state in the Union, the Agricultural Extension 

 Department of the International Harvester Company has com- 

 piled the following facts : 



Of the farmers reporting, 3,750 live in Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, 

 Pennsylvania, Iowa, Missouri, New York, Indiana, and West 

 Virginia; 1,250 reports come from scattering states. Reports 

 from those having range flocks in the west have not been consid- 

 ered. 



Of the farmers reporting, 4,100 had farms of less than 200 acres. 



Of the 5,000 farmers reporting, 4,250 had from 10 to 50 ewes; 

 4,000 farmers had ewes of the mutton breeds, the others had 

 Rambouillets and Merinos. 



Two thouf'and, seven hundred fifty farmers sold their lambs 

 direct from the ewes without weaning them. The seUing age 

 was from three and one-half to five months. 



One thousand, six hundred fifty farmers fattened and sold the 

 lambs before they were one year old, or as soon as they were shorn 

 of their first fleece. The others reporting either sold the lambs for 

 feeders or matured them on the {aim. 



Two thousand, two hundred fifty farmers kept a few of the best 

 ewe lambs each year for breeders. 



Corn and oats were the grain feed for the ewes on practically 

 all corn belt farms 



Two thousand five hundred farmers bought wheat bran and 

 oil meal to feed to ewes before lambing time and while suckling 

 the lambs. 



Merino Ewes and Lambs. Owned by R. J. Henderson, Adena, Ohio 



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