Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1908-05-27
rnE SMALL FLOCK or SHEEP.
A Missouri FIoekmaster Tells Wherein
They Pay.

iUGy ray.
For the man who urges that sheep
IA not pay the following by A. j.
nHmes, a prominent sheepman Of
Missouri, may be some enlighten-
ment:
A well fed flock of sheep is the
most profitable property farmer can
own. The number of sheep has In
creased over three million in Great
Britain IN the last few years until now
there are over three hundred sheep to
every square mile. If sheep raising
vas looked upon as a primitive indus.
try, suited only to barren and waste
lands, why is 1t that in Great Britain
the tenat looks ON his sbepe as the
surest rent payer on land that is worth
from $500 to $500 an acre!
The sheep business has passed the
primitive stage. We can count on Il
we'll established and increasing de-
mand for our mutton products. The
people of the country, and in fact
the consumers of all the American
products, are demanding more NUT
ton and those who never ate the flesh
of sheep before, once having tasted
It's fine favor and discovered its nu-
tritiousness, are becoming steady con
sumers of it, and not only is this the
case, but when this best of all fresh
meat is introduced, it stays and the de-
mand for it increases. We have al
ways advocated that any farmer in
our State can keep a small flock with
satisfactory success. Failure In the
keeping of sheep invariably happens
in having too large flock to be&fR
with. for if one is able to keep success
fully small flock, which any person
with good judgment and good common
sense may do, it Is no reason that he
fan keep a thousand with the same
success, for in all arts pertaining to
agriculture there is no branch so diff
heult to become proficient in as the
shepherds art. This does not apply
to sheep alone. Let any man over
stock the capacity of his farm with
hogs or cattle and disaster is sure to
follow.
In my thirty years of experience in
the sheep business have always
found that my sheep made me more
profit for the feed consumed and the
capital invested than any other stock.
have made $50 per cent profit on
grade ewes raising early lambs for
the Eastern market. The sheep is the
100 per cent animal, whether it be
grazing on the rocks of the Ozarks
or on the fertile fields of this great
State Of ours, and there is nothing
that beauties or excites the artistic
eye or makes the farm more attract
i've and pleasant than a well cared for
flock of sneep.
There Is every encouragement for
a progressive shepherd to start in the
sheep business If you have never had
any experience in the business, let me
warn you to go easy and buy a few
ewes and figure on improving in the
future. One Of the principles of sue.
cess is to raise each year lambs that
are better individuals than their moth
ers. Have your ideal You know the
ones that answer to the accepted type
and your ideal. Study your flock; you
know the ones that raise the best
lambs and shear the heaviest fleece
and you learn to discard the coarse
head, the heavy ear, the long leg, the
cloudy wool and dark skin. Hold on
to the ones that conform the nearest
to your ideal, and the most essential
and important part is good care. AS
some one has said, wise shepherd
feeds his lambs a month before he
sees them and the foolish shepherd q
month afterward.
I | want to impress upon the minds OF
all that in all my experience the most
essential and important thing to re
member to make the sheep business
| profitable is care. Care will make con
stitution; care will ward off disease;
care will save feed; care will make
! fat, and fat will make more and bet
( ter wool. Yes, and care will convince
any man that the sheep is the 100 pei
cent profit animal Now in conclusion
let me say that the aim of every farm
I er in our State should be to keep (.
small flock of sheep, and 1t can b.
shown by figures of the most truthful
character, and that cannot lie or de
ceive, that this can be done in what i!
now wsated on thousands of Missouri
farms. and the profit from the focl
well cared for will be 100 per cent, i
not more.