The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1891-01-30
THE KlMBALL GRAPHIC
CLATE Il. IMAM.
Official Paper Of the City and Count
ruE suEEr nusYNDa.

A
The GRAPHIC is in receipt of the fol-
lowing inquiry from one of the best and
most successful young farmers in Brule
county:
Will the GRAPHIC tell the farmers Of
South Dakota how to keep from ten to
twenty-five sheep and make anything out
of it. There are not enough to pay to
keep a herder with them and it will cost
more than the profits from that number
to fence them in, to say nothing about
the rent Of land.
Our correspondent refers to an editor
ial in q recent edition of the GRAPHIC in
which we advised farmers inexperienced
in sheep raising to go slow, and that the
GRAPHIC's reiterated advice to "buy a few
sheep" did not mean one or two hundred,
but a much less number-say from ton
to twenty-five,
That it would be q foolish operation
for a farmer wholly inexperienced in car
ing for sheep to invest several hundred
dollars in the undertaking, unless he had
plenty of means to devote to the expert
ment, our correspondent must admit.
Taking a hundred or so sheep-or all he
can care for is quite another thing. Here
the loss, if any, comes mostly on the man
who furnishes the sheep. What the
GRAPHIC referred to was buying the sheep
outright. This much to make our mean
ing clear.
But eur correspondent prefers not to
see a pr0ht for any man Who invests in
ten to twenty sheep, tor reasons he states.
The reasons he gives will apply to the
keeping of almost any stock. 1t seems
to us that any farmer who has a few COWS
horses and young cattle could introduce
a score Of sheep on his place without any
special preparation. Some farmers can
not take properly take care Of what sto OK
they have. 1t isn't to be expected, of
course, that sheep in a greater or less
number could help them out.
What is the matter with q h~alf-dozen
or SO farmers with as many small flocks
of sheep placing them together and hiring
a boy to herd? This would only be nee
essary during the growing season of
crops. Six months of the year they can
be turned loose on the prairies like cattle.
They will soon learn to come home with
the cows. The original purchase of ten
to twenty-five sheep would in a few years
increase to q good sized flock il the owner
SO desired, and he could then go into the
business on as large a scale as his capital
would admit, with the decided advantage
of practical experience to aid him.
Buy a few sheep has been given to the
end that the income from the farm might
be helped-not with the idea that it
would constitute the principal income.
We can remember the time when Ohio
had more sheep than any state in the
Union, and yet, despite this fact, a per
son might travel for weeks through the
country districts and not find a flock OF
over twenty-five. But every farmer had
a few, some not more than three or four.
Not many miles from kimball a certain
farmer las al eve that has brought him
SIP i'll cash during tina last three years
and he still has the W She never had
an II Of grain or any special care. but
has rustled with the other stock. Tins
farmer could have undoubtedly kept ten
ewes with no more trouble or expense
and reaped the proportionate profit. nc
herder would have been necessary or any
fenced land. And the funniest part of
it is, the farmer who has had this profit.
able experience with one lone eve and
tae farmer who sends in the inquiry
herein answered, are one and the came
man.