100 PEOriTS OF MUTTON PRODUCTION. 



Good grades have averaged about $2 per head in the fall 

 for a number of years and the increasing demand for them 

 by the butchers is steadily raismg the price. Estimating 80 

 per cent, of lambs and 50 cents a head for manure, each 

 sheep would thus average in both products $2.10 — just about 

 the equivalent of the fleece; so that it would be equally 

 well, on high-priced lands requiring fertilizers, _ to say 

 that the lambs and manure pay the cost of keeping, and 

 the fleece is to be reckoned as the profit. According to the 

 first computation, lands worth $50 per acre would give their 

 owner a profit of seven per cent, if they would support a 

 little over one and three -fifths sheep to the acre; and that 

 Avould be indifferent grazing land, where the domesticated 

 grasses are grown, and under proper systems of winter 

 keeping, which would not support three sheep to the acre. 

 It would be a very moderate estimate, taking a term of years 

 together, to put full blood American Merino lambs — even 

 from flocks of no especial reputation and not kept for what 

 is technically designated "breeding purposes" — at double 

 the price of grade lambs. They are now worth at least three 

 times as much. 



The prospect of the future demand for mutton has been 

 suflSciently considered. I had hoped to be able to present 

 an exhibit, in details, of the cost and profits of its production 

 based on actual experiments. But I have been disappointed ; 

 and I will only reiterate the statement that the experience of 

 England, and of portions of our own country, has clearly 

 demonstrated that in regions appropriate for its production, 

 it is a more profitable leading object of production than wool. 



