Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1906-04-27
ABOUT READY
FOR LANDING
All the FIockmasters viii Give Es-
pecial Care to the Crop Next
Month.
LAMBS ARE VERY VALUABLE
Outlook for Wool in Fergus, the State
and the Country at
Large.

In less than another week. lambing
will be in full blast all over Fergus
county, and the fiockmasters are as
busy as bees making arrangements
for the coming crop. 1t is expected
that favorable conditions will prevail,
but no chances will be taken, and no
detail will be overlooked that can aid
In saving the lambs. The percentage
saved ought to be very high, since S.
S. Hobson has been informed by his
foreman that the band which lambed
out last month did so well that 98
per cent of the lambs have been saved.
AS the lambs were dropping during
the coolest weather in March, when
the mercury was down to Is below
zero, this result is looked upon as
remarkable, and shows what can be
done when al the arrangements are
perfect, even though conditions are
not favorable.
The sheep men are feeling pretty
good over the contracts made last
week, for while the actual prices are
known only to the parties, it is ascer-
tained positively that the contracts
were made at an advance over last
years figures.
Wool Industry in Montana.
The last issue of the American
Sheep Breeder gives the following re-
view of conditions in Montana:
with the lambing season practi-
cally in progress, the Montana sheep
man can be said to be a very busy
person. He is hard at work pre-
pairing for the season which will ul-
timately determine whether he can
figure this fall that he has made any
profits during the past year or wheth-
er he only eked out a bare living.
1t is the money-making season with
him. so to speak, and it counts.
AT several ranches throughout the
state a number of the bands of ewes
have already been lambed out. This
early lambing, however, is not usually
practiced, but where lambs have been
lambed early this spring their owners
have made ten-strike, for the wealth
er has been admirable for lambs to do
well. During the early part of the
month the weather was almost like
summer, which started the grass ear
ly. BY May l, the time the lambs usu-
ally drop, the grass will be in splendid
shape and the ewes will thus be en-.
abled to have sufficient supply Of
milk to give their offspring the desired
and necessary nourishment.
"The Montana sheepman will be ex-
ceedingly careful this year to save
every lamb possible. It means much
to him, for with lambs being contract
ed at prices ranging from 50 to $3.50
for fall delivery it will pay him to
save every one possible. For the past
two months the flockmaster has been
preparing for the lambing season in
the way of building sheds and getting
everything in shape for the care of
the herd when the actual dropping be.
gins. More and more every year are
the sheepmen of the state realizing
the necessity of ample protection for
their sheep and a plentiful supply of
feed during the winter; that the latter
insures them much better wool clip
and a much larger and stronger lamb.
THE wool clip this year, it is esti-
mated, will be fully 100000 pounds
short of a year ago. This, it is stat
ed, is conservative estimate. The
large number of sheep shipped out
of the state last fall is the cause Of
the shortage, large numbers of sheep
being SHIPPED to the corn states for
feeding purposes. Buyers came to
Montana direct instead of waiting to
buy them up in the open market, and
such an influx of buyers has seldom
been equalled in Montana"