Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1879-10-16

IL ever IcSdin Tic pLdcC LII ItccfiLy OccuplGu.
Again, Notwithstanding the quantity oil
refuse with which rag-dealers furnished the
mills. the country has been a large import
er OF wool and wooden goods /; in other
words, we have fallen short of supplying
ur home requirements for wool by Milo
ions of dollars worth. If this was the case
while prostration marked almost every
branch of industry, how much greater must
be the deficit with labor of all kinds en-
ployed, and every manufacturing industry
in active operation, unless the wool pro-
duct is largely increased? We have not ia
ken into account the increase ~ofpopulation,
which, as recent statistics show, is being
greatly augmented by immigration. and
co~nstitutey an item by no means insignifi-
cant in forecasting the future requirements
of the country for wool and wooden fabrics.
The foreign meat traffic furnishes, also,
an opportunity to extend sheep husbandry
in the production Of mutton, which must,
we opine, awaken a far greater interest in
to been known among us. The export
trade in mutton-live and dead-is ~increas-
ing every year, and must do SO for some
time to come. It is, as yet, in its infancy,
and as American farmers come to under
stand, more generally, what the foreign
market requires, it needs no seer to predict
that this traffic will reach proportions COM
pared with which it's present volume is in
significant. Our capacity for the produc-
ton OF mutton Of fine quality is almost
without limit, and upon the qnality of the
product more than anything else the vol
m of this traffic depends. That it may be
vastly augmented does not now admit of
questions; and that it will continue to grow
in greater ratio even than it has yet done is
scarcely less probable. Greater care in Sc
lection, in breeding, in rearing, in alimenta-
ton, on the part of farmers who make this
branch Of sheep husbandry a part OF their
business, will mark the future of this indus
try, and place it on a higher plane than it
has yet occupied in American agriculture,
for the inducements are greater han they
have ever been before.
But another feature which renders the fu-
Of sheephusbandry still more promis-
ing has been tinaugurated. The rearing Of
sheep for breeding purposes to supply the
requirements of farmers throughout the
has long, been a speciality with
some breeders. The demands, also, of flock
men in the southwest and far west, have for
the,la last few years considerably stimulated
this branch of the business. But the ship
ment OF sheep to foreign countries for
breeding purposes has commenced. 1t has
not been long since a shipment of Amer.
can Merinos was made by Mr.. Markham,
of New York, to till an order from the Gov
eminent Of Japan. Nor is this all. Amer
lean Merinos have been sought and bought
by Australian Wool-groWers, to cross upon
sheep Of. that region, which, as in the
OF Japan, there is hardly, room to
doubt, will befollowed by.increasing orders.
From South America, also, there are inaui-
for. our. sheep for breeding purposes.
The factis, our American bred Merinos are
superior in all essential characteristics to
their French, English, or Spanish congen-
ers, anda foreigners who are largely inter-
ested in Wool-growing learned that. fact at
Centennial. The.fruits Of that knowl-
are beginning to be gathered. The
A~mericanasheep of,this breed have greater
hardness and constitutional yigor, and at
The same time produce a heavier fleece than
and the shrewd lock-lnasters of the
vast sheep-Walks Of Australia, South Amer
lea and elsewhere are beginning to find it
out and knowing that the maximum Of
in. breeding from such sheep, they
turning theirattention this way to SCI
cure breeding animals. It's, therefore, a
reasonable supposition that this branch of
American sheep hushandry vii. develon