, 1906-01-25
WYOM|NG'S COLLEGE
IS HELPING ST0CKMEN

amounting to over SIS, 900, 900.
The growth of the sheep industry
has been truly phenomenal. In 1872
there were five counties in Wyoming
and 1922 sheep valued at $4,000 were
listed for taxation. No uniformity in
valuations prevailed. The 10000 in AL
bany county were listed al $2.25 per
head. The "a sheep in Uinta county at
$3.50 each; 6 in Laramie county and
124 in Sweetwater county at 81 each
and the 2 lone sheep in Carbon county
were taxed $50, showing that Carbon
county thus early in the game started
in with some mighty high priced stock,
The 1900 in 1872 multiplied to $4,000
in 1878 and in ten years to 260, 900.
The winter of 1886 was very severe
and half of the cattle in Wyoming per
ished, but it didn't faze the sheep bust
ness which ten years ago passed the
million mark and since then has in
creased three fold. CHANGING briefly
at the ~thirty-four years recorded history
of the sheep industry as shown by the
assessment rolls, one stands amazed at
its steady yet rapid development. A
few individual failures have occurred,
but in the aggregate the results are
truly astounding. The net profits from
this one industry have been the most
potent factor in producing the wealth
which Wyoming now enjoys. The sur
plus derived from sheep raising has
founded more banks, established more
shops and stores, built more beautiful
homes, made more people wealthy than
any other industry in Wyoming. Yet
it is a fostered industry, dependent
largely upon the whims of congress for
favorable legislation and protection.
For nearly nine years the sheep indus
try has prospered as never before, be-
cause of an u~ndisturbed protective tar
if, and, mind you, this is the longest
period in the history of the American
nation that the wool schedules have re-
NAMED unchanged, for since the first
protective tariff on wool went into eff
feet, ninety years ago, the wool sched-
ules have been amended twenty-one
different times. The only free wool
period was from 1894 to 1897, when Wy
oming woods sold at from four to seven
cents per pound, and merchants and
bankers carried a nightmare of unpaid
accounts.
Just now when the eastern manufac-
turing states are a~gitating the ques-
ton of free raw materials, meaning
free hides and free wool to be brought
about either by a reduction of the tar
if or by reciprocity treaties with Ca
NADIA and South America, it is well for
us to recall past experiences and stand
shoulder to shoulder in active and ag.
gressive opposition.
Last year we imported owe 47,00G,-
600 pounds of wool from the Argentina.
This wool is very similar to ours and
pays a duty of IL cents per pound. Had
that duty been removed or even reduc-
ed fifty per cen through the medium
of reciprocity treaties, the importations
would have trebled, and Wyoming wool
growers would have been forced to
compete with the cheaper labor, cheap
err land and cheaper ocean freight rates
of the South American w~ool-growers.
The way to foster the wool industry
is to stand Loyalty by the men who can
surely aid us by preventing a reduction
in the present wool schedules, and the
enactment of unfavorable reciprocity
treaties, and by perfecting a powerful
state organization which will cooper
ate with the National Wool Growers
association in its titanic battle, now on,
for the protection of American WOOL.
We must also keep abreast of the
times, welcoming and encouraging ag-
ricultural development, settlement and
progress, remembering that a ton OF
alfalfa, a bushel of grain or an acre Oh
meas will manufacture more wool and
better mutton with greater profit than
SAND and sage brush, never fearing but
with that development, which is sure
to come. Wyoming can profitably han
die three times the present number of
sheep.
Our small ranchmen should be en-
couraged to go into the business OF
growing and fattening sheep. The
|lambing, shearing and winter feeding
operations could be conducted individ
ually: then for six months in the year
neighbors could club together and
make up 1ocks of sufficient size to pro
ftably hire herders and utilize the op
en- range. The systematic develop
ment of agriculture should open a wide
field for the expansion of the sheer
growing and sheep feeding business
And lastly, but most important Of al
as a means Of fostering the wool in
dustry, let us strive to eliminate thu
spirit of graft, the overweening desire
tn get something for nothing, which
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