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Chicago market. The home trade is supplied through six mouths of 
the year by grass-fed sheep direct from the range, and the rest of the 
time by old ewes and wethers that have been fed alfalfa with a little 
grain. Most of this is bought by the butchers at less than three cents 
per pound, live weight. 
A business much the same as this is the raising of sheep to be 
sold off the range as feeders for someone else to fatten for the Chicago 
market. The sale takes place in the fall, and the sheep are sold as 
lambs, wethers and old ewes. Most of these are bought by Nebraska 
and Iowa feeders; but, as already stated, some sixteen thousand head 
the past winter were either fattened for market by those who raised 
them for or Tvere sold to Colorado parties for fattening. 
The usual mode of procedure is for the lambs to be dropped in May, 
then in November, they are put in the feeding yards for fattening to be 
sold in the late spring. Older sheep are at the same time taken off 
the range for feeding in the yards all winter. 
Variations from these methods are found among those who try to 
prepare sheep for the Christmas market. There is a limited demand 
at Christmas time for extra fat sheep. To supply this demand it 
is necessary to bring the sheep to the feeding pens in September and 
put them at once on heavy feed. The opposite of tliis course is 
carried on by a few feeders, who bring the sheep off the range in 
November, winter them on nothing but alfalfa, and, when the grass 
starts in May, drive them slowly through the valleys of the mountains 
to the mining camps, allowing them to feed by the way and get 
in good condition. Very good mutton is thus produced at small 
expense. The prices obtained in the camps are so small as to leave 
little margin of profit. 
The last method of keeping sheep is for the production of early 
lambs for the spring market. In this case the ewes are served iii 
August, so as to have the lambs dropped in January. The ewes are 
fed hay with a little grain until they lamb, then they are crowded 
with the best of feed. As soon as they are old enough to eat grain, it 
is kept before them all the time in boxes that the ewes cannot reach. 
April is the best market for early lambs. A January lamb should 
weigh sixty pounds at three months old, and bring about five dollars 
if well fattened. From high-grade parents of the best mutton breeds, 
with the best of care and feed, it is possible to have the lamb weigh 
as many pounds as it is days old. A registered Shropshire lamb, born 
last January on the College farm weighed eighty-three pounds when 
three months old. 
As soon as the lambs are sold the ewes are fattened for 
market and turned off the last of May. The sheep feeder has there¬ 
fore the choice of feeding lambs, wethers, or ewes, and of feeding them 
for the Christmas market, for the local State market, for the Chicago 
market, or of raising early lambs for the spring market. 
The time at which it is desired to market the sheep is the principal 
