Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-04-07
The Distribution of Sheep in the
United states.

producing about two billion pound
of wool. The worlds crop of woo
can only be guessed, but it is certai
that the humble sheep contributes a
least $500, 100000 annually, in wool
to the wealth of mankind. Our owl
wool crop, greatest in 1884, when
was estimated at 308, 100000 lbs.
was in 1888 265, 900, 900 lbs. Nearl
half the wool we wear is of foreIgl
growth, the figures of 1887 being
crop of 269 900, 900 lbs, an impor
of ia, 100000 lbs, and a content
of 49,. OOO. 900 lbs. wool in imported
goods.
The variations in the number anC
geographical distribution of sheep il
the United States are very notewor
tby. Previous to the war, 1S4O-1S6C
the census showed about 10000, 00C
sheep, nearly all east of the Missis-
sippi River; the sheep in New Eng
land, nearly 1000, 900 in 1910, were
but half this in 1860, and the same
was true in New York, but the new
West more made up the balance. The
Agricultural Report for 1883 gave
5O,OOO,0O0 probably an over-esti-
mattel, of which but p 100000 were
east of the Mississippi, over 9,00O,-
900 of the balance being on the Pacif-
ic coast. The current report estimat-
es for 1889 AZ ,599,079 sheep, valued
at $50, 64O,369. The great majority
of sheep-raIsers in this country, even
in the wool State of Ohio, are the
farmers who keep from twenty-five
to fifty or even a hundred head as a
help to the farm. East of the Missis-
sippi the number of focks reaching
thousand or more is not large. The
sheep is one of the small farmers
best servants. 1t not only produces
wool and mutton, but it keeps his
fields fertile with manure, cleans
them of stubble and weeds, and by
causing vegetation 20 grow upon the
hillside, counteracts the waste of soil
''by which the farmer feeds the riv-
ers from the heart of his pocket
book" The sheep shearing is one of
the farm festivals and takes place in
various parts of the country from
April 10 June in some parts there is
also fall clip. The flock is usually
first washed by being driven one by
one into a running stream or SWIM
ming box, where men stand waist
deep ready to catch the sheep, float
it off its feet, dip it under water,
squeeze out the dirt, and so pass it
on along the line. After ten days or
a fortnight's drying the sheep is
ready to be shorn. 1t is brought into
the shearing house and set upon the
low shearing table, or fastened into
kind of wooden bowl revolving on a
pivot with frame like a chair back
attached to which it is tied or some
times it is sheared on the floor. Put
ting his arms around the sheep, the
shearer makes a cut in the fleece at
the breatbone, thence clips down the
belly, shears the left side of the coat
up to the backbone, and then turn
ing the animal, shears the right side
until the body of the fleece comes off
like a loose overcoat. Great care
must now be taken to preserve the
sheep from cold. The fleeces are bal
ed and shipped to market-or, better
stored in the farmers "wool house"
until one of the many wool buyers
who travel through the countryside
inspecting and purchasing, makes
satisfactory offer.
In the far West, on the contrary,
they are in huge flocks, often quarter
ed on government lands, supplying an
exclusive occupation to hundreds of
The census of 1880 report
ed p sheep ranches in Texas, New
Mexico, and California, aggregating
100000 head, an average of 140,-
900 to the ranch. 1t is reckoned in
California that 21a to acres are re-
quired per sheep, while on the small
farms of the East ten sheep may be
fed to the acre of pasture. The Cali
fornia sheep, largely of French meri-
no stock, are of unusual size, known
as ''rustlers," because they must rus
tie about for their food. Many of
them are from the flock of W. w.
Hollister, who in 1852, recognizing
the adaptability of this new country
for sheep growing, returned to Ohio
and procured 5000 of the best sheep
he could find, of which but third
reached the coast. But the increase
was so rapid that in a few years he
had over 100000, and sold above
100000 worth of wool a year. The
long midsummer drought compels a
spring migration up into the Sierra
Nevada Mountains, and one may see
great focks OF from 1000 to 5000
head making their months or six
weeks ascent to the heights. The
great sheep-runs become a Botany
Bay for all sorts and conditions of
"greasers," and
college graduates together. One flock
master employed one year "a bish-
ops son, banker, an editor, a civil !
engineer, and book-keeper," har-
Testing their wild OATS while the
sheep were cropping theirs, for it is
On this plant that the sheep Craze.
is done twice year, largely |
nv Indians who ORC Said To hnGGmora /