Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1901-08-10
THE AMERICAN SHEEP
MARKED INCREASE IN OUR
DOMESTIC FLOCkS.
Census for 1901 Shows Gain Alike In
Number Owned and in Average Value
Per Head Over the Splendid Spring OF
Last Year

In view of the present low price of
wool throughout the world, the lowest
known for many years. and the great
prostration now prevailing in the wool
AID sheep industry in every country
except the United States, it is interest
ing to know how the American sheep
farmer fares He fares best among al
his competitors, very much the best
His industry has not been ruined; far
from it. He is infinitely better of
than are the sheep and wool producers
of the rest of creation Vastly better
on he is than during the disastrous
free wool period of 1S94-97 and the
succeeding two years of a home mar
ket over-stocked for foreign woods
brought here free of duty. So great
was the glut of foreign wool under the
Wilson tariff law that it. was not until
1900 that our domestic growers began
to feel the benefit of the duty on wool
restored by the Dingley tariff Even
now there is on hand a considerable
quantity of the free wool that was
rushed in during the closing months
of the Wilson law
A year ago the sheep census of The
American Protective Tariff league
showed some surprising results. Con-
trasted with the free-wool period of
1886 the census for 1900 showed a gain
OF TIA per cent in the total number
OF sheep owned and gain of 121-59 Per
cent in average value per head. But
this was before the bottom dropped
out of the worlds wool markets. Since
then the great slump in wool values
has taken place.
Have American f1ocks decreased. and
has their value per head declined along
with the sheep of Australia, South
America and other wool producing
countries? Decidedly not.
On the contrary, the sheep census
Of 1901, just completed by the Ameri-
can Protective Tariff League, shows:
Number of states reporting... 40
Number of reports received. 707
Sheep owned, March, 1901. l. AGA ,7S1
Sheep owned. March, 1900. :. i, 256, 73S
Gain for 1901. 2OS DAB
Percentage of gain for 1900. 80. 1855
1t is found that against an average
value of $3.50 per head in March, 1900,
the average value for March 1901
was $4.O4, an increase of IA cents per
head, or $50 per cent.
1t would appear that the American
sheep raiser has a marked advantage
over the flock masters of the rest of the
world. First, he has in his favor
protective tariff, which fixes an ire
duc1ble minimum of market value for
his heeces- Unless the foreign grow
er sells his wool for nothing, he can
not compete with the domestic grower
) in the American market. The Dingley
tariff takes care of that Second. the
average value per head of American
sheep is kept up by the enormous de-
mand for mutton and lambs for food
purposes. The American wage Garner
when busily employed at high wages.
as he has been for three OF four years
past and now is, consumes from three
to thirty times more meat than the
other wage carriers of the world He
is fond of good mutton and juicy lamb.
and he is tremendous consumer of
these meats. In fact, he is the best
customer the American butcher has.
1t is not the rich people, but the wage
earners, that keep the butcher shops
going. 1t is no longer possible, as it
was in 1896, under Wilson tariff free
wool to buy a good sheep for fifty
cents. That day has passed, and will
come no more as long as the tariff on
wool protects the wool grower while
the tariff on all lines of production
makes times good, wages high and the
consuming capacity of 76, 900 900 peo-
pie three to thirty times greater than
the consuming capacity of the rest of
the people on earth.
Condensed into form easily read
and understood, the sheep census of
the American Protective Tariff league
for 1901 is a., folIous.