Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1876-06-15
LIV . : STOCK.
ABOUT SHEEP.

ABEL. The SecOlQ son vi AuaLl, CilOSc SHcep-l
herding as his employment, and although
his elder brother chose to cultivate the soil,
the pastoral life became the favored occupa-
ton of the human race in its earlier period,
and the more toilsome tillage of the soil was
followed from necessity rather than from
choice. With a sparse population, a search
ty of labor, but at the same time an ample
territory, the cultivation of fiocks became in
early times the readiest means Of providing
food and clothing, increasing the comforts OF
man, and Of accommodating transferable
wealth. ffAag4agy. SIN .9E ~ tp|
Although at first sight it is a singular cir
cumstance, yet on reflection it is seen to be
q necessity of the case, that the territory up
on which the f1ocks of the ancient patriarchs
were fed and tended is still the home of
shepherds, andtliat there, for forty centuries,
fiocks have wandered from pasture to pas
ture under the care of their nonaadic proprfe-
tors. Where the physical features ofthe
country were favorable to pasturage, there
the first civilized occupation was that of
keeping sheep, and 50 it remains to the pres
ent day. .GA"1 "- <' H-a +..
The scope for an increase in our wool pro-,
duct Is comparatively boundless. A full
third Of the territory of the United States is
grand sheep pasture of the most favorable
character. Vast plains bearing an abund-
ance of the most nutritious heritage, in the
mostihealthful climate, and the very best
condition. for the profitable breeding of fine
and middle wool sheep, and which are value
less for any other than pastoral purposes,
stretch from the Tooth meridian for 500 miles
to the Rocky Mountains, and from north to
south for 1,5OO miles. In addition to this
vast tract, upon which a hundred. million
sheep could feed and thrive with ease, there
are immense mountain ranges, extensive
valleys, and again beyond these, great
plains, altogether covering a stilllarger area,
of which a great portion is admirably fitted
for the pasturing of sheep. With so great
a scope for the cheap production Of wool, it
seems to be q strange thing, that instead OF
exporting largely of this staple, as we might
and should do, the United States, on the
contrary, is one of the largest buyers in for
eign markets. sa#s' HID
Again, on the, Atlantic Seaboard there are
millions OF acres Of land now useless that
would, ifcleafed and cultivated, make ex-
cellent sheep farms for the production of
the choicest mutton sheep. m There are
numberless salt marshes upon which sheep,
naturally fitted through long years of aadap-
tation for just such pasturage, could be made
to yield mutton of the most delicate flavor.
There-ar also hills and rocky mountains
D whose sweet heritage hardy races Of
sheep could be made to thrive with profit
and further inland, highly cultivated farms,
where heavy crops of green fodder and roots
could be raised, that might carry flocks Of
largge-franed sheep, yielding combing wool
nov SO much used in clothing, materials
for both sexes, and the demand for which is
always ahead of the supply. And further
south, where it is possible to pasture sheep
the year round, but where those which are
now kept are SO neglected that some of them
are never shorn, there is also vast room to
change the overdone cotton. production for
the equally easy but more profitable produce
ton OF wool which in that climate, by the
exercise of proper care, may be grown of
the finest quality of staple.
What a vast field opens upon our view,
when we consider the extent of territory
which we possess suitable for sheep culture
and what profit and Increase OF national
wealth is there in this business TIC, those who
undertake it as the occupation of their lives
not only for a short period and intermit-
tingly, and then to be abandoned tor some