Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-03-24
The CHRONICLE.
Butter VS.. Wool.

A Vermont farmer writes as follows
in the Hearth and Home on the above
topic: Yesterday / was looking owe
one of my old account books, and
found that in 1S4S 1 bought the best
butter at fourteen cents a pound,
while wool was worth from sixty
seven to eighty cents, and that a pound
of wool would purchase five pounds of
butter. 1t was with good reason that
our farmers sold off their cattle and
bought sheep, for there was a quick
sale for wool, while the want of rail-
roads prevented the dairyman from
sending his produce TO a market. To-
day a pound of butter will command a
higher price than the same quantity
of wool. The large increase in the
population of our cities and manufac-
turing towns, with the easy facilities
of transportation, creates a demand for
butter and cheese, at good prices,
which we have reason to believe will
continue for many years. In orderto
obtain the highest prices for butter it
must be made so near the consumer
that it may be sent to him in a few
hours while fresh and sweet. On the
contrary, the grower of wool, an arti-
Gle which will keep good any length
of time in any climate, must come in
competition with the producers in the
wilds of Australia, the plains of Africa,
the mountains of South America, and
the fertile hills of California, where
land costs nothing, and where sheep
can range the whole year on their pas
tures-nature bountifully providing
for all their wants. An illustration of
the easy production of wool in Califor-
mia was given to me this past summer
by a friend, who, with his two boys,
emigrated from here fifteen years ago,
taking with them a goodly flock of
sheep. They have now twenty thOus-
and, which iced in pastures the whole
year, are watched by a few native
shepherds and dogs, and brought into
sheared. They purchased a large
tract of land at a low price, have no
fences to make, no hay to cut, no
barns to build, and no long winters in
which to feed their sheep. Itdoes not
cost them five cents a pound to grow
wool.
1t is generally conceded that ten
sheep will consume as much food as
one cow. The best sale of wool re-
ported here this season averaged seven
pounds to the fleece, and sold at 144c
a pound-equal TO S29,O5 for the pro-
duct of ten sheep. In contrast with
this, Mr.. A. told me that from the
milk of six cows in eve months he
had sold butter to the amount of eigh-
ty dollars for each COW, besides raising
four pigs, worth twenty dollars each.
The growth of the pigs, and the milk
which he should have for at least
three months longer, will amply pay
the expense of milking and making
the butter; showing an advantage in
favor of each COW of over fifty dollars.
Last fall he paid 81, 500 for young cat
tie, fed them through the winter, and
in midsummer sold them for $1,000,
and as he gleefully said, ~ have all
that manure on my farm.n He has
one hundred and fifty acres in mea-
dow, but never sells hay, thinking it
more profitable to convert it into beef
first.
Many of our farmers have made
money by breeding high-blooded
sheep and selling at fancy prices,
while few will become rich in growing
wool when it takes the producer of a
sheep a year to buy beefsteak and
butter enough to give a family a din
ner.