The log cabin Democrat. [volume] (Conway, Ark.) 1901-1982, 1908-06-04
THE SMALL FLOCK OF SHEEP.
A Missouri Flockmaster Tells Wherein
Thew Paw

They Pay.
For the man who urges that sheep
do not pay the following by A. j.
Grimes, a prominent sheepman of
Missouri, may be some enlighten-
ment:
A well fed flock of sheep is the
most profitable property a 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 $500 to $500 an acre?
The sheep business has passed the
primitive stage. We can count on d
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 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 1t 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 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 do, 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
ficult 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 l 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
or Of ho vi
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 sheep.
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 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
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 MONTH before he
sees them and the foolish shepherd a
month afterward.
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
err in our State should be to keep
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.
A "NlGGER" CROP.