way, with a given capital and a given range, lie will receive a higher 
price per head, but have only two-thirds as many sheep for sale. In 
the end the net profits for the capital invested, the men employed, and 
for each square mile of range is about the same in the two methods. 
The number of flocks run in the two ways is about even. In fact, 
most large flocks are run in each way, the earlier and stronger lambs 
being sold in the fall as lambs. The later and poorer ones are carried 
over to the next year. 
These remarks do not apply to the southern sheep; for, at a year 
old, they are only a little larger than as lambs and after running the 
extra year on the range, they lose much of their aptitude for fattening 
and will bring as yearlings scarcely any more, and often not so much 
as they would have done as lambs. 
The bulk of the lambs are dropped in May throughout the sheep- 
raising districts from '^ew Mexico to Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and 
Idaho. Of course, many lambs are dropped later than this and in the 
south hot weather comes on so soon that the late lambs are stunted in 
their growth. When the lambs are sold in the fall, about two per 
cent, are culled out, including these late lambs. The culls have to be 
carried over to the next year and sold as yearlings, so that there is 
always a small supply of yearlings from the south for feeding; but at 
least six-sevenths of the southern sheep fattened for the Chicago 
market are lambs. 
Where crosses of mutton blood have been made on the original 
Merino stock, and the feed on the range is good, the lambs grow very 
rapidly and would make good mutton in the fall without special 
fattening. Individual lambs sometimes weigh ninety-five pounds 
when six months old, and whole bunches average over seventy pounds. 
Such lambs would be $2 per head on the range and there would be no 
profit in carrying them over to a second year. Taking the whole 
country together, from central Colorado north and west, the practice 
is about evenly divided between selling as lambs and keeping them 
until older. 
TRANSPORTATION OF SHEEP. 
Sheep are brought to the fattening yards for winter feed by rail¬ 
road and by driving on foot, or, as it is called, trailing. The sheep 
brought from Wyoming, especially from the two centers, Rawlins 
and Casper, are principally driven. Farther west, from the country 
around Soda Springs, Idaho, they are more often brought by rail. It 
is not uncommon, however, for sheep to be driven from Oregon to 
Nebraska. One of the principal shipping points for southern sheep 
is Clayton, New Mexico, and they are always brought by rail from 
there to northern Colorado points. All shipping by rail is done on 
what is called a feeding-in-transit rate. The freight from Fort Collins 
to Chicago is ^95 per car; the rate from Clayton, N.M., is the same. 
