28 
This is almost exactly a dollar a head. 
On a bunch of fifteen hundred southern lambs, the account would 
stand: 
Freight on four cars @ $119.50.$ 478.00 
Freight on two cars (O' $104.50. 209.00 
Feed two days @ 6 cents per head. 90.00 
Yardage at Chicago @ 5 cents per head. . 75.00 
Commission on six cars. 60.00 
Expense of three men @ $40. 120.00 
Total.$1,082.00 
This would be sixty-nine cents per head, and represents the least 
possible cost. It is common to estimate probable expenses for lambs 
at fifty cents per head in addition to the freight to the Missouri river 
on two-thirds of the cars and the traveling expenses of the owner. 
This is the same as about seventy-five cents per head. 
EXPENSES OF FEEDING. 
The expenses of feeding southern or Mexican lambs can be esti¬ 
mated with a great deal of certainty. The cost does not vary much 
from year to year and the cost of the various bunches in any given 
year will differ only a few cents. The fall of 1894 they cost $1.85 
per head delivered at Fort Collins, with freight paid to the Missouri 
river. Alfalfa hay costs from $3.50 to $4 per ton in the stack. The 
buyer has to do the hauling from the stack to the feed racks. It is 
customary to add a dollar a ton if the seller does the hauling and also 
furnishes feeding yards, racks, etc. Wheat has cost on the average 
the past season $15 per ton, cotton-seed meal $19, oats and barley 
$21, and corn chop about $22. 
The expense of caring for the sheep and giving them their feed will 
vary greatly with the size of the fiock and the conveniences for feeding. 
Six hundred head is the smallest bunch that it is profitable to feed. 
One man and team will do all the work necessary for such a bunch 
and have enough spare time to do all the work needed through the 
winter on a farm large enough to raise the hay for this number of 
sheep. On a larger scale, three men and one team will haul the hay 
and do all the feeding for a bunch of four thousand head. Their 
wages would be not more than $150 per month or $900 lor the six 
months’ feeding period. This is less than twenty-five cents per head, 
while in bunches of fifteen hundred or less the average cost is not far 
from thirty-five cents per head. 
How much hay will a sheep eat? The amount depends, principally, 
on the size of the sheep, but also upon the amount of grain fed. 
When fed on hay alone, the amount eaten is closely proportional to 
the size. If there is any difference, the larger sheep eat more per 
thousand pounds of live weight than the smaller. The general ex¬ 
pectation among feeders is, that old wethers and ewes will eat about 
