Sheep Feeding in Colorado. 
By W. W. Cooke, Agriculturist. 
The statistics of the United States Department of Agriculture 
credit Colorado with having 1,200,000 sheep, and a lamb crop in 
1894 of 200,000. The lambs saved in the spring of 1895 will be not 
many less than this number. It w’ould be supposed from these fig¬ 
ures that Colorado would fatten many sheep for market. Until 
within the last two years, very few sheep have been fed for market in 
this State and even now the number does not nearly equal the number 
raised. The strange fact has also come to light that most of the fat 
sheep sent to market from Colorado were not raised in the State. A 
few feeders raise the sheep they fatten and about an equal number 
buy Colorado-grown sheep to fatten, but the large majority of the 
sheep grown in the State are either used for home consumption and 
home markets, such as Denver, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Leadville, 
etc., or are sold for fattening to I^ebraska and Kansas feeders. 
Out of the 117,000 sheep fattened in Colorado for the Chicago 
market during 1894-95, only about 17,000 were raised in Colorado. 
The other 100,000 were divided about equally among sheep from the 
south and those from the north and west. Kearly all these sheep 
were fed in two localities: one in the Arkansas Yalley, at Pocky Ford 
and Las Animas, sending out 40,000; and the other about twice as 
many from the region of the Cache-la-Poudre and Thompson rivers, 
with headquarters at Fort Collins. 
VARIETIES OF SHEEP. 
The sheep fed in Colorado last winter represent all the kinds 
grown west of the Mississippi river. They may be considered in four 
groups: Old Mexican, Kew Mexican, Merino, and Mutton. Lambs, 
'ewes, yearling wethers, and old wethers of each of these kinds were 
fed and as each is classed and sells differently in the market, it gives 
sixteen kinds of sheep handled in Colorado. The principal object of 
this bulletin is the comparison of these different kinds and the dis¬ 
cussion of the question as to which is the best adapted to Colorado 
conditions. 
The Old Mexican Sheep are the direct descendants of the original 
Spanish-Merino brought over two hundred years ago by the Spaniards 
