ANNUAL REPORT—STOCK FARMING. 
3 1 
of twenty years ago is seldom seen. The more beautiful and 
profitable Short Horns, Devons, Ayrshires, Alderneys and grade 
cattle of valuable qualities, are fast taking their places. The far¬ 
mers of the state are more and more each year turning their atten¬ 
tion to this branch of farming, believing that the profits arising 
from their labor are much greater, and the exhaustion to their lands 
much less. Until transportation is cheapened between the great 
food-producing states of the west, and the consuming states of the 
Atlantic, the farmer must study how he can best compress his 
corn and other coarse products into the smallest bulk, and have it 
conveyed for the least money. It is a source of gratification to 
state that nearly all of the coarse grain shipped from the state is in 
the concentrated form of beef, pork and other like products. The 
number of cattle has increased the last year, notwithstanding the 
increased demand for home consumption, and the export being 
larger than the previous year. 
SHEEP. 
This branch of stock raising cannot be too strongly^fprikyurageO. 
Wool is commanding good prices, and woolen manufacturing es¬ 
tablishments are being built all over the state, making a home 
market for the entire product. There is also an increased demand, 
both for home consumption and for export, of fat sheep and lambs. 
Mutton is an excellent article of food, and is much sought after by 
all classes, particularly in warm weather, being highly nutritious, 
easily digested, and possessing less heat producing properties than 
more fatty meats of many other animals, and hence more health¬ 
ful during the summer season, Altogether, I consider the sheep 
one of, if not the most profitable animal for the farm. They will 
thrive upon coarse feed, with little grain, will obtain their living 
later in the autumn and earlier in the spring upon the pastures 
than other stock, clean pastures of weeds and brush, and preserve 
the lands upon which they roam in a high state of fertility. 
Room for More: —‘'Statistics show that there were in 1871, about 
32,000,000 sheep in the United States, yielding an average of four pounds of 
wool each, or 128,000,000 pounds in the aggregate. In addition, the annual 
importation of wool amounts to about 70,000,000 pounds, at a cost of nearly 
$10,000,000. Then we import woolen goods to the amount of nearly 
