The log cabin Democrat., 1908-07-09
THE SMALL FLOCK OF SHEEP.


 THE SMALL FLOCK OF SHEEP. A Missouri Flockmaster Tells Wherein
 They Pay.
 For the man who urges that sheep do not pay the following by A. J. Grimes, 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 was looked upon as a primitive indus try, suited only to barren and waste lands, why is it that in Great Britain the tenat looks on his shepe as the surest rent payer on land that is worth from $3n. to $500 an acre?
 The sheep business has passed the primitive stage. We can count on a well 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 flavor and discovered it's 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 all 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 a flock to begin with, for if one is able to keep success fully small flock, which any person with good judgment and good common sense may dc, it is no reason that he can keep a thousand with the same success, for in all arts pertaining to agriculture there is no branch so diff f1cult 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 I have always found that my sheep made me more profit for the feed consumed and the capital invested than any other stock. I nave made 150 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 State of ours, and there is nothing that beautifes or excites the artistic eye or makes the farm more attract i've and pleasant than a we'll cared for flock of sheep.
 There is every encouragement for 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 suc- cess is to raise each year lambs that are better individuals than their moth CTS. 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 esseneial 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 a month afterward
 1 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 per cent profit animal. Now in conclusion let me say that the aim of every farm CT in our State should be to keep a small flock of sheep, and it can be shown by figures of the most truthful character, and that cannot lie or de ceive, that this can be done in what is now wsated on thousands of Missouri farms, and the profit from the flock we'll cared for will be 100 per cent, if not more.