Arizona republican., 1898-02-02
SHEEP IN THE UNITED STATES.
George H. Wallace, Secretary of New
 Mexico, Re3ds a Paper

George H. Wallace, Secretary of New
 Mexico, Reads a Paper
 George H. Wallace, secretary of New Mexico, read an exhaustive history of the sheep feeding industry in the United States before the national stockgrowers' convention at Denver. Following are extracts from his paper which appearsd in the Denver Repub- ican:
 No sheep breeders in the world have equaled the American in the production of density of fleece, which is fineness of fibre. Prof. MoMuIray of the university of Illinois, in his ex- haustive report on Wool and Other Fibers,' proves beyond the possibility of question that he found 29,OO0 on a square inch of an American sheep, while the highest number found on the finest Australian Merino was but between 22,O0O and 23,0O0.
 Nor has the American been ex- celled in the production of fiocks with mity in size and form, possessing with long staple of great length and CldSlIItIy, WILL ClInp anu d gloss of sheenI bright and showy
 For fifty years they have been pro- ducing sheep the equal of those grown anywhere in ehe world. More than that, for thirty years our readers have been exporting breeding sheep to every wool growing country, for the i'm provement of the f1ocks of those coun- tries. The American Merino is now a fixed type, with its markings so peculiar to itself, and they are so pre- potent in breeding that a fractional cross of American blood is easily de- tected by breeders. Ne, rr -ss
 'At an information exhibition held in Vienna in the early fifties the prize for the finest samples of Merino wool went to the state of Tennessee in the United States. .
 In 1851. at the worlds exhibition in London, four prize medals were award ed to American sheep and the inter na- tional exhibition of 1863, at Hamburg when all of the finest flocks of Europe were represented, the two first class prizes were awarded to Merino sheep from Vermont.
 'It is the current popular opinion that English and Australian wool sur passes American i'll quality, but the reverse is true. For more than thirty years the Australians have been an- nually importing American sheep by the carload, as breeders, to secure fnenesS of fiber and density of fleece. The characteristic of Australian clips which has produced this impression, is uniformity, and this uniformity is secured by the size of their f1ocks in all goods where soft and fleecy finish is required American wool ex- cells those of the rest of the world
 ''The many different kinds and breeds of sheep may be divided into two classes; those kept for the wool they produce with the carcass as an incidental, and those which are bred for the mutton qualities. with the fleece as the incidental. It is now and has been for years, the study of and aim of the enthusiastic breeder to pro- duce an animal which shall be a con- bina,ion of these classes, but while We are nearer that point than ever be- fore we are yet far from complete sue cess. The character of the soil and food obtained therefrom have much to do with the development of the ami nal. The mutton breeds, as the Sots- wolds, and the Downs, like damp eli mate, soft food and level ground while the Mer1no prefers and thrives best on stony soil, in a hilly country and a drier atmosphere
 1.-The effects of standardization are not yet fully considered nor under s,ood- While the animal may live and appear to thrive the altered con- ditions of life will certainly be felt. It has been often noted that the con- stant cold in the high plateau of the Cordilleras clothes the pig with a downy fleece, and the action of the heat in the valley of the Madeline substitutes coat of shining hair for the sheep's fleece of wool In these sections of the United States where the sheep have been the longest ac- cMmated we may see the effects oi different climates ,2nd various foods and modes of life. In Vermont and other northern portions the carcass is small, the wool dense and the gen. eral appearance of the sheep is stocky and compact. In Missouri and Kan sas the frame is larger, the staple as rule longer, the wool not so dense In Texas and New Mexico the frame incp2ase in size, the wool is quite long in staple. srong in character and becomes very open.
 "The growth of wool in the west and the development of the industry since 1860 in the Argentine. Cape ot Good Hope and Australia made wool growing east of the Mississippi un- profitable, and the building of manu- fac;uring centers and large cities in that section made a ready market for mutton sheep, which took the place of the Merinos that were sold in the west. The locality of both branches of the sheep industry has been thus esta ablished by the memorable force ot circumstances.
 What it's future will be. who can tell. Let us hope the industry will live and prosper
 SCROFULA Is the advertisement Of foul blood. It may be entirely 6riu0n fr-Op ha 1,xy% 9-;