-4- 
It does not pay usually to shear sheep that are being fattened for 
the Chicago market. 
The death losses in feeding sheep in Colorado are very small, both 
absolutely and as compared with the losses in the states farther east. 
It costs a dollar a head to ship sheep from Colorado to Chicago 
and seventy-five cents for lambs. The shrinkage in live weight dur¬ 
ing shipping is about seven per cent. 
n The cost of a well-fattened southern lamb laid down in Chicago is 
about $4; the items being $1.85 for first cost of lamb and freight, 
40 cents for labor of feeding, interest and death losses, and $1.75 for 
cost of feed eaten. 
The average price in Chicago the past season for such lambs has 
been $4.30, varying from $4.90 to $2.73 for large bunches. The 
small bunch fattened .on the College farm brought $5.32 per head. 
The large western lambs fed in Colorado have scarcely paid ex¬ 
penses, and the same is true of the older sheep, both southern and 
western. 
There were fed to sheep sent to the Chicago market from Colo¬ 
rado last season 136,000 bushels of wheat, 95,000 bushels of corn, 840 
tons of other grain, and 27,560 tons of alfalfa hay. 
List of all feeders in Colorado who fed sheep for the Chicago 
market the winter of 1894-95. 
At The State Agricultural College of Colorado, 
Port Collins, four small bunches of sheep were fattened dur¬ 
ing the winter of 1894-95. They consisted of western yearling 
wethers, western lambs,- Mexican yearling wethers, and Mexican lambs. 
Four different feeds were used: Alfalfa hay and wheat; hay and 
corn; hay and sugar beets; and hay, wheat, and sugar beets. 
When on hay alone, they ate quantities nearly proportional to 
their live weight. 
All the sheep made excellent gains. The western lambs grew 
most rapidly, the Mexican yearlings the least. 
The Mexican lambs gave the best net profit of 88 cents per head, 
the western lambs 71 cents, the western yearlings a loss of 18 cents 
per head, and the Mexican yearlings a loss of 5 cents per head. 
As a return for raising and feeding the hay, the western yearlings 
returned $4.57 per ton for the alfalfa, the Mexican yearlings $5.22, 
the western lambs $8.00, and the Mexican lambs $10.94. The Mexi¬ 
can lambs fed on alfalfa and cracked wheat returned $12.34 per ton 
for the alialfa. 
It is worth about 7 cents per pound for each pound of increase 
in live weight put on sheep. 
Sugar beets proved an acceptable feed to the sheep, and the most 
rapid growth was made by those that had hay, grain, and beets. 
In small quantities as part of a moderate ration, sugar beets made 
a return of about $3 per ton. Fed all the sheep would eat, they re- 
