318 PRODUCTIVE FEEDING OF FARM ANIMALS 
Growing Sheep, Estimated Requirements (Including Maintenance 
Requirements) per Head Daily 
’ Weight, Digestible | Energy 
months | pounds | Protein, | value, 
6 70 0.30 1.30 
9 90 25 1.40 
12 110 23 1.40 
15 130 .23 1.50 
18 145 22 1.60 
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 
