The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1882-04-27
KANSAS STILL AHEAD AS A
SHEEP STATE.

Kansas City Journal /: At the recent
meeting in Sedal:a 0f the Missouri
wool-growers, a large number of the in
ieliigcnts eaergetic sheep-nasters from
Central aud Western Kansas, along the
line OF the Kansas Pacific rai!road, we're
in attendance and we've heartily vel
coined by. the genial Aissourians as
sion on successful wooI-growing, gen.
lleman of long and wide experience told
tbs western sheep men tLat II was
futile for them 10 auempL to reach
Tie high Vermont and New Hampshire
standard. They could not from mere
natural causes ever expect 30 raise as
fac wo,l as they DO in the east. There
the owrer Of small flock and they
do have only small fiocks among their
New England bilis and on their small
farms-never permits drop of rain 10
tall on his sheep. All the rough winter
he houses them, and feeds them in warm
| stables; and in summer when cloud
threatening rain is looming up he hur-
ries out into the lane. and whistles, or
calls, Pete, Pete!' 70 and his sheep will
come scampering mp into the sheds out
OF danger OF getting wet. Then, there
Is the fine feed, that makes the fine wool.
The New EngIanders raises carrots ans
mangels by the ton. and tender, juicy
grass for palatable hay. And the result
is the fine fiber Of this merino wool
To be sure, mangels and carrots might
be raised in fertile Missouri, but the hot
summer weather that ripens the giant
corn will not swell with sweet juice the
roots of the beets and carrots, nor can
We in the west keep our fields as clear
from weeds as the culture of root crops
SO imperatiyely demands. Hence we
must feed roughnsss and coarse grasses.
and our large aocks out on the range
cannot be quickly hustled into sheds
whenever a rain is coming up. And
thus it is that the New Highlander has
natural advantages over the western
wool grower.
This speaker was followed 10y sheep
master from a county on the Kansas Pa |
cific road, in the western part of the |
state He admitted it all TO be true, as |
far as New England was concerned; he |
"had been there" himself, and it might |
probably be true what had been said of |
the west, in general way. But it did
not apply to Kansas. In the first place,
as 10 housing and keeping sheep out OF
the wet and having warm stables for
them, Kansas was not needing them.
The winters are so mild and short;
this present winter they had only
four light SHOWS and no rains 10
do any harm; the protection which low
sheds built of native stone snd matched
over with long prairie hay or straw or
coInstalks afford, was amply sufficient
on the few Indictment days Of the season;
for the whole winter the sheep had been
out on the range without corn, or millet,
or rice corn, thriving on the native buff
ialo grass, that tender, nourishing prov
ender with which the prairies of Kansas
are clothed as with thick blanket. And
his sheep were sold right off the range
for firsl-class mutton. Our short, mild,
dry Kansas winters do for our large
flocks what the warm, close, well bat
tened stables of New England do for
the merinos there. And as for succu-
lent food to make fine fibered wool, We
10 Kansas grow and feed-soTghum!
Yes, sorghuml lis sweetness IS felt in
the soft, oily wool, is tasted in The juicy
mutto6. Is Seen In The heatAftf, merry
gambols of our sheep. Kansas beats
New England, beats Ohio, beats Wiscon-
sin and other northern neighbors.
Thus spoke "old Sorghum" and the
wool growers of grand old Missouri
clustered around him lie bees on
linden, and made him tell more of the
large. wide ranges, the clear, never fail
ing springs, the stone corrals, the sor-
ghum feeding, the genial winters and
the companionable sheep men Of West
ern Kansas.
Aye, Kansas is still ahead, and its
people are beginning to take good care
of her reputation also.