Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-12-18
SHEEPMEN
-. PROSPEROUS
Showing Made by State Sheep
Commissioners
STATISTICS COMMENT
Credit Given TO Tariff Legislation
Wool Yield Sold For,
100000.

10 VI
ing under a protective tariff. The wool
marketed at increased prices during the
fiscal year ending November 30 brought
ABOUT $3,ooo.coO into the state. and in
round numbers the total yield from the
WOOL II mutton industry was "a, 500,-
900.
Ihese facts are contained in the sum-
mary of the years operations. reported
to the governor on Saturday by the state
board of sheep commissioners, The re-
port shows a total Of 3.461 1888 sheep in
the state on March ]. 1899: that since
March /, 1899. Eli, 5S6 sheep were brought
into the state: that 1.O92, 972 lambs were
locked and that S6S, 421 sheep and lambs
We're slaughtered or shipped out of the
state since March 1.
The board reported that inspectors
have been appointed in all the counties
save Flathead. Jefferson, Granite and
Lewis and Clarke. A deputy was an
pointed in Carbon county and two as
slstants were required in Choteau county
to care for infected and exposed sheep.
Or general conditions, the board re-
ports in part as follows:
At the time of our wool harvest, prices
for that staple had not reached the noint
mat the condition of the market really
JUSTIFIED, nor were they as good in fact
as III appearance, for, owing to the I'M
usGal amount of rain and the backward
season., the feeces were light, averaging
TIVE one and two pounds per fleece
less than usual, and though the price was
2 cents better, the yield per head was
no more, II as much as the previous year.
'Ihough the middle-lnen are making
the best profit as the market now stands,
our Woo!groWers have not forgotten the
great relief experienced, and feel neither,
nvious nor regretful. The country is
now for the first time in position to real
lze the full benefit of the tariff lesisla-
tlon of 1897. The prolonged discussion of
mat measure. as was intended, gave on
p~ortunity to glut our market with for
eign wool. The business was well done
IN the interest of the manufacturer, and
IN fact rather overdone, for it SO reduced
the price of wool in this country thar |
during 1888 aud the early part of the
present year the price abroad iustifad
many foreign shippers in re-exjortinr
their wool. In these manipulations Of
the tarlrl, the date of it's going into effect
OF the manufacturers were regarded
ana protected to the sacrifice of the
WoolgroWers.
Such discrimination transparentlv
practlced and long continued will direct !
the attention of Montana producers to
NSSsoitJ VI !dlluIdcturlng thnir !
own product. as the cotton-groWers of
the south are now doing. The cost Of
our wool to the far east and
paying the return charges on the finished
product will go far to counterbalance the
higher price of labor and interest rates
MOI only 90 our WoolgroWers suffer at
the hands of the eastern manufacturers
but we think they have just ground fo,
complaint at home in the matter of as
sessment n taxation. The first CLEAN
a brighter day for the woolgrowers
which might enable them to recoup some
Tue losses OF a series of ~unfavorable
brought out the tax assessors AMI
in full force and with rayeno1,s
appetltes to levy toll. Is there any req
son Why sheep should be assessed at q
rate of taxation in Montana-a
aoiiaf per head more h a in most of the
states-all OF which have the same re-
lulrelnent that all property shall he as
sessed at it's actual ~value?"
Inc report mentions high wages and
-relehts as discOuragements to the indus
-fy n points out tina the sheep owners
LAY no advantage over other sections nf
ne state in disposing of their products.
The board of equalization. it saws has
gone beyond the bounds OF law and d,,tv
n an endeavor to increase the burdens of
men.
In the matter of diseases among sheen
he report says: "In our report of last
year We were competed to record the re-
appearance of scab among the sheen in
portions of the state resulting from the
Importation of diseased animals from
'ther states. The trouble %reappeared this
season with the advent of warm weather
showing that the work of determination
lad not been thorough and extended
enough. Heavy expense has been entail
ID upon the board and individual owners
rom this cause, through care
oSSnpSS of imnOrtprS and 6icra0ar6 Of o,,.
quarantine law more vigorously enforced.
Ehe right to import sheep does not include i