SHALL WE GO OUT OF SHEEP? 
Mr. Woodward Will Stand By Them. 
With wool within 10 cents of the free list, and no 
prospect of better prices for several years at least, I 
acknowledge that the outlook is a little discouraging, 
especially so for those 
farmers who have Merino 
flocks, which have been 
kept mainly for wool, 
and so finely bred that 
they are mostly wrinkles 
and wool. But my advice, 
even to them, is not to be 
in too much of a hurry. 
It is a safe rule, “ to do 
the opposite of other peo¬ 
ple,” and the fact now is 
patent that everybody al¬ 
most is rushing madly 
out of the sheep business; - r 
but few times before in 
the history of this country 
has there been such a 
mad rush to sell sheep. 
I predict that in a very 
short time, the same men 
who are now almost giv¬ 
ing away their sheep, 
will be in the market to 
buy. 
I have about 800 sheep, 
and have no desire to get 
out of the sheep business. 
What I would advise flock 
owners to do, is to study 
the present conditions, 
and accept the lessons 
and profit by them. 
While there is a mighty 
sight of difference be¬ 
tween the profit of wool 
production at 50, 25, or 10 
cents per pound, there is 
still a good demand for 
mutton and at a growing 
price. Our people are 
rapidly learning that 
mutton is the best, most 
nutritious and healthful 
of all animal food, and 
are annually eating 
larger quantities of it 
and are willing to pay 
better prices for it than 
for any other flesh food. 
What they want is mut¬ 
ton of a different and 
better quality than what 
has been grown so large¬ 
ly on the common sheep 
of the country. 
The American Merino 
has been emphatically a 
wool producer; for ages 
it has been reared on the 
line of giving the most 
wool of the finest quality, 
on the smallest carcass, 
and for the least food and 
care, until it is the cham¬ 
pion wool growing sheep of the world. But no atten¬ 
tion has been paid to the size of cai’cass or quality of 
mutton. 
At the old time prices of wool, sheep were worth so 
much for their wool that they were kept on, the weth¬ 
ers even, till they died of old age, simply for their 
fleeces. During these times the better clothes'of the 
people were of very fine fabrics, and none but the 
finest wools were adapted to their production, and as 
a matter of course, these fineogreasy fleeces sold for 
nearly double the price per pound of the lighter 
coarser wools. But fashions in dress as well as tastes 
OLD STYLE WOOLMAKING ; THE SUNNY SIDE OF A RAIL FENCE. Fig. 85. 
THE NEW WAY OF KEEPING SHEEP. GOOD SHELTER AND FOOD AND BLOOD. Fig. 86 . 
in eating, have greatly changed ; our people to-day, 
men and women, dress mostly in coarser and more 
open cloths, and for the manufacture of such, the 
lighter, medium or coarse wools are needed ; now 
these wools sell for the most per pound. 
While the prices of wools are not likely to change 
for some time, the mad rush of sheep out of the coun¬ 
try, and great decimation of flocks in the boundless 
West by this unprecedented severe winter, must reduce 
the flocks below the numbers required to supply the 
consumptive demand for mutton. Sheep must advance 
in price and be again'sought. The wise farmer is he 
who, instead of sacrific¬ 
ing his flocks, so changes 
them as to meet the re- 
quirements of the 
changed conditions. 
Many have the notion 
that all that is needed to 
do this, is to get out of 
Merino blood and into 
some of the English mut¬ 
ton breeds. They seem 
to think that blood is 
everything ; that if they 
put these sheep upon the 
same pastures, and give 
them the same care and 
food as the Merinos have 
had, the mutton produced 
will be just as good as 
that grown in England. 
No more misleading no¬ 
tion could possibly pre¬ 
vail. It will benefit no 
one but the importers 
and dealers in these 
sheep, and in the end it 
will injure even them. 
All breeds of English 
sheep are simply what 
they have been made by 
care, food and environ¬ 
ment. Kept from time 
almost out of mind on 
those rich pastures, and 
fed always on succulent 
food and with a daily 
grain ration, of which 
corn formed no part, but 
which was made up of 
those nitrogenous foods 
calculated to develop the 
largest amount of muscle; 
bred and selected with a 
view of fixing some pe¬ 
culiar characteristic in 
the mind of the owner, 
almost every county has 
produced sheep of a dis¬ 
tinct type ; but in all of 
them the idea of most 
and best mutton in the 
shortest time, has been 
kept prominent. The re¬ 
sult has been the grand¬ 
est mutton sheep of the 
world, and English mut¬ 
ton chops always stand 
as the standard of excel¬ 
lence. 
For our farmers to buy 
a few of these highly de¬ 
veloped mutton pro¬ 
ducers, and turn them 
into our scanty pastures 
to rustle for their living 
with no water, but such as is obtainable from the dew 
and rain, and expect them to maintain their special 
characteristics and high quality, is but little better 
than insanity. 
What we first need to do is to learn the necessity of 
better care and feed, if we would produce a better 
