A TALK ABOUT SHEEP. 
Compared with Other Live Stock. 
At a recent farmers’ meeting in Ohio the question 
was raised: “How do sheep compare with other 
kinds of live stock as an investment?” This question 
was followed by another, “Who knows what per cent 
profit, if any, can be made from a small flock of sheep 
as a side line kept on a farm where dairying for in¬ 
stance is the main business?” These questions led us 
to make a calculation to find out whether or not the 
keeping of sheep is worth while. 
First we consider the man. Real shepherds are 
born, not made, and a man, to be a successful keeper 
of sheep in large numbers, and continue in the busi¬ 
ness, must be one of the born ones. 
But this need not hinder any farmer 
with pasture land from having on his 
acres a small flock. What kind of a 
small flock? That depends again on the 
man, his surroundings, his markets, his 
likings, etc. There is unquestionably 
profit in breeding purebred registered 
sheep, but remember here the born shep¬ 
herd, and he only, can succeed. The 
man who undertakes to produce breed¬ 
ing stock of any kind must be a student 
of nature and be willing to spend his 
whole life at it. Something is expected 
of him, and rightly so. When a cus¬ 
tomer buys an animal from him it is 
expected to work improvement on the 
flock to which it goes, and unless we 
can furnish a purebred animal that will 
be an improver, better stay out of the 
company of men who are trying to sup¬ 
ply the great demand for high-class 
breeding stock. We already have in that 
calling men in plenty who are failures, 
and also too many purebred males that 
should have been sent to the butcher 
instead of into the flocks and herds of 
our land. 
Profit there is in- the raising of the 
early lamb, the hothouse lamb we call 
him. So far as we know only three 
breeds will mate early enough to bring 
the lamb into the world in time for the 
“dollar a bite” prices. These three 
breeds are the Dorset, the Tunis and the 
Merino. Some money has been made 
buying lambs and matured sheep, feed¬ 
ing them into finished mutton, and oc¬ 
casionally some money has been lost in 
the deal. In this article I am going to 
pass by these propositions, and base the 
calculation above referred to on the 
keeping of a small flock of say 25 high- 
grade breeding ewes, allow them to 
raise their lambs in Summer, sell the lambs at wean¬ 
ing or the next Winter or Spring as yearlings, retain 
three or four or a half dozen of the top ewe lambs to 
add to the flock. Let us suppose that about the first 
of last October, when business was dull and sheep 
markets also, we had had enough foresight to buy 
those 25 ewes, we will say 25 smooth Merinos or 
Delaines, just as you choose to call them, and we 
could have landed them at about $4 per head and in 
many sections very choice ones at $4.50 to $5. Of 
course these figures will not fit everywhere, but they 
W *H S* ve u s an idea, and we must have figures of 
home kind if we arrive at a conclusion on the profit. 
I wenty-five ewes at $4.50 per head means an outlay 
( f $112.50, and we will call their age three years; 
?-’•> more will place with them a purebred ram—al¬ 
ways have him purebred. Our investment is now 
$137.50 October 1 , 1908. 
Now let us find the profit in having them around for 
one year. Under ordinary conditions we would expect 
these 26 sheep to thrive until December 1 on pasture 
worth possibly 10 cents per head per month. This 
makes $5.20 for Fall pasture. We really ought to 
credit them for trimming weeds and weed seeds that 
will never grow after they get into a sheep’s mouth; 
this is more than can be said of any other stock on 
our farms. After December 1 we will consider the 
Winter season on; counting one pound of balanced 
grain ration to each sheep per day through the Win¬ 
ter until May 1, when the older sheep must live on 
pasture and the grain ration be shifted to the lambs 
that will arrive in March. We have no cheaper ration 
on most' farms than corn and oil meal of pea size, 
making the ration one-third oil meal by weight, and 
fed twice daily. At present high prices of corn and 
oil meal this Winter’s grain ration will cost about $45. 
That looks big, and so it is. If we have choice clover 
hay, or better, Alfalfa, we can cut this cost down 
about one-third, perhaps more, but let it go at $45 
and see how we come out. Two tons of clover or 
Alfalfa will furnish the roughage; worth if clover 
$8 per ton, if Alfalfa $12. We will split the differ¬ 
ence and say $20 for hay, and we can cut this down 
by feeding corn stover part of the time. May 1 we 
go to pasture with the 26 sheep and at least 23 good 
lambs—we ought to have 25. Build a creep for the 
lambs and feed them corn and oil meal all Summer, 
that will cost, at the rate of one-half pound to each 
lamb per day, about $15, and pasture for the whole 
flock up to October 1 , 1909, at 10 cents per month for 
the older sheep and half price for lambs $18.75. In¬ 
terest on investment and taxes, $10; feeding, $10; 
shearing, $2.60; five per cent depreciation in value of 
ewes, $6.88, and $1 for tobacco, and we must have it 
if we are to keep clear of parasites. If we sort out 
these figures and add them we have $134.43, one 
year’s expenses, marked up against our 26 sheep and 
23 lambs representing an investment of $137.50. 
Now let’s get on the other side of the ledger. About 
the last of April or May 1 we should clip 10 pounds 
of wool from each ewe and 20 pounds from the ram; 
270 pounds of wool, worth 25 cents per pound, 
amounts- to $67.50. Manure saved during the Winter 
worth perhaps $10. At the end of one year the 23 
lambs are worth $4 per head, $92. Al¬ 
together we have to the flock’s credit 
$169.50 against $134.43 outlay; differ¬ 
ence $35.07. Is this good or bad? Just 
a little over 25 per cent clear profit, and 
we have taken an unfair advantage of 
the sheep, counting feed at a high figure 
and allowing them more of it than we 
would need in actual feeding, but the 
object of this is to make you think and 
not to lay down any ironclad rules for 
computing cost and profit. 
Just a few more" words. There are 
other conditions beside feed that must 
be met in the sheep game. Sheep like 
everything dry except the water they 
drink. They won’t thrive in a swamp. 
I hey won’t stand long for wet feet and 
wet fleeces in Winter means “sniffles.” 
Sniffles are bad enough, but they won’t 
kill, and we sometimes think that some 
flocks are damaged more by close hous¬ 
ing than they would be if left out in 
the Winter storms. Keep a sheep’s 
fleece dry and it never gets cold enough 
in this country to freeze, and a sheep 
that won’t grow wool enough to keep 
him warm is not worth keeping. Dur¬ 
ing lambing time some of the windows 
and doors must be closed, but with the 
• flock at other times open the windows 
and top doors and let the air inside be 
just as cold and fresh as outdoors, and 
they will be healthier and happier for it. 
Internal parasites in a flock means sick 
lambs and dead lambs and no profit. 
Tobacco does the business, either stems 
or leaves kept where the flock can get 
all they want all the time. Finally as 
time goes by it will fall to the lot of 
the eastern farmer to supply more of 
the wool and mutton. The great west¬ 
ern flocks are sure to diminish. The 
homesteaders of our rapidly increasing 
population must have the pasture land for homes, and 
when the pastures of the West are divided as are 
the lands of the East the golden hoof will take its 
right place in our business. Would it not be wise to 
get ready? R. a. hayne. 
UNOCCUPIED FARMS IN NEW YORK. 
IIow many such farms as Mr. Lyon speaks of on page 
81 are really for sale at fair figures? 
It would be difficult for me to say how many unoc¬ 
cupied farms, and others, in this State are for sale. 
It is also impossible to say how many more would 
be offered should the price be advanced 25 to 50 per 
cent. I can say something reasonably definite re¬ 
garding my own locality. Figuring on an area 
about my own home perhaps three miles square, I 
have been able to make a list of 57 farms. These 
