y 
SHEEP—UNITED STATES, NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALIA, 3 
population. The number of sheep slaughtered for food purposes 
during the 12 months ended March 31, 1914, was 4,019,831, and of 
lambs 4,838,180. The 1913 exports numbered 3,538,488 lamb car- 
casses and 2,201,865 carcasses of mutton. 
New Zealand’s flocks number 21,500, and the average size of flock 
has increased from 1,081 in 1896 to 1,124 in 1918. About one-half the 
sheep are in flocks numbering less than 2,500 head, while seven-eighths 
of them are owned in flocks numbering over 500 head each. 
A contrast of these figures with others for the leading farm-sheep 
State and the leading range-sheep State in this country is of interest. 
Sheep in New Zealand, Ohio, and Wyoming. 
: Holdings | Holdings | Average 
State. Pelanaeg Puree ae over 100 having size of 
: 4 acres.2 sheep. flock. 
Acres. Number. | Number. Number. Number. 
Wen Zealand ss eeer Sse oe eae 66, 292, 232 | 24, 595, 405 25, 702 21, 527 1,124 
DBI) 3415 c's GNSS Ga Ee aa ee 26,073,600 | 3,263,000 94,754 71, 556 55 
NVA O RINT De = cele ELIS FIP eS. 62,459,160 | 4,472,000 9, 584 1, 643 2,938 
1 Jan. 1, 1914. 2 Jn 1910. 
Tt is partly because of necessity that New Zealand lands are so 
largely devoted to sheep raising. A good quality of mutton and 
wool can be produced without the feeding of grain, the production 
of which is not favored either by the soil or by labor conditions. On 
the other hand, the place occupied by sheep is evidence of the profits 
obtainable when valuable lands are devoted to well-managed flocks 
of sufficient size to insure for them the lively interest and careful 
tending essential to their well-being and which in our farming States 
is the exception rather than the rule. 
While it is true that the values of other commodities do not call 
for other uses of land as in our farming States, this fact is offset 
by the lower prices paid for mutton and lamb in New Zealand. The 
advantage enjoyed there in the price of wool is quite largely due 
to the exercise of superior skill in preparing the clips for the market. 
Tt is true also that New Zealand fiockmasters have no predatory 
wild animals to contend with. The problem of the domestic dog is 
not absent, however, but the dog is held in check, because the general 
and predominating interest in sheep gives support to well-enforced 
laws. Our farming States have experienced a decline in sheep rais- 
ing on a¢count of unequal competition from cheap western lands. 
The force of that competition no longer exists, and the agriculture 
of the Middle and Eastern States will not again exhibit its most 
_ profitable status until the flocks of sheep therein are larger and much 
more numerous than at present. The main difficulty in the way is 
