SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. 105 



Loup Forks and tributaries have 10,000,000 to 12,000,- 

 000 acres of as good and reliable winter grazing as is 

 to be found in Buenos Ayres, South Africa, or Aus- 

 tralia. Wool can be raised as cheaply in this country 

 as anywhere in the world. In other countries they pay 

 land and water transportation of thousands of miles, 

 sell their wool from 12 to 25 cents per pound, and 

 grow rich at that price. On the Loup alone there is 

 room for 7,000,000, and the best grass I have ever, 

 seen for graminivorous animals. Ohio has 6,500,000 

 sheep, which, considered alone for their wool, after pay- 

 ing the interest of capital invested in their pasture- and 

 meadow-lands, and the cost of feeding through the six 

 months of winter, do not pay one per cent, on the capital 

 invested in themselves." 



These 6,500,000 sheep of Ohio, if they could be 

 transferred to the Platte country, besides making room 

 at home for a paying investment, would pay 25 per 

 cent, profit per annum out West, where the only cost 

 of keeping would be herding. 



