The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1918-01-02
Sheep Situation AS
Viewed By Government

Washington, Jan. 1.-The worlds
" DOL problem has been made acute
" the war. and in the United States
the necessity for a very large in
crease in the sheep industry has be
come imperative.
Conditions are such that this in
crease must be brought about on the
all-round farms of the country. as
part of general agriculture; not as
specialized industry. The princi-
pal reason for this is that the sheep
ranges of the Western States have
been reduced in area as agricultural
has developed. Grazing land has
been changed to farming land.
Only one farmer out of seven in
the United States carries any sheep
Yet, by proper management practi-
CalIv every farm can support some
sheep, without reducing other live
stock, and with a very small addi-
tional feed and labor charge. Ameri
| cas- solution of the wool problem is
J to get sheep on these sheepless
farms.
The average annual wool importa
ton % the United States for the last
three years could have been produced
at home if one-fOurth of the farms
without sheep had carried one sheep
to each three acres. Before the war
! England had one sheep for each two
and one-half acres of its entire land
area, while the United States had one
sheep for each 31.8 acres of farm
land, exclusive of the western rang
eS.
/ Some years aco England saw the
l. -
the sheep industry, for both wool
and mutton. as a part of the perma-
nent AGRICULTURAL policy of the coun-
try. That is Americas necessity
nova necessity accentuated by the
war, but caused fundamentally by
conditions that would have required
establishments if there had been no
war.
/ The great sheep countries have
/ been the frontiers of the world-the
new countries" undeveloped agri-
culturally, and having vast tracts of
cheap land suitable for sheep rang
/ es. Our own Western States, Aus
tralia. South Africa, South America,
afforded such pportunities-and do
yet, Of course, although not so eX-
tensively as in the past.
The object of range production was
WOOL Mutton was q minor consider
alton; first, because the world didn' I
need it and. second, because it could
not be transported from the pioneer
lands. Wool on the contrary, could
he held indefinitely, and could be
carried to market in time, no mat
ter how limited or how difficult the
transportation facilities.
But these conditions changed as
railroads began to reach the "new
countries. Homesteaders settled up
on range land and put it into culti-
walton. As agriculture developed,
| lands advanced in value. Smaller
areas were available for sheep. Ocean
! refrigeration and other transporta-
! tiol improvements made it possible
| for the ''frontiers" to ship mutton to
the other side Of the earth. High
mutton prices caused the slaughter
/ of lambs to an extent that prevented
/ flocks from increasing sufficiently
/ to meet the wool demands For over
! six years the worlds wool produC-
/ ton remained practically stationary.
| There are no new frontiers to be
! ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS from a stand
; point Of the sheep industry. British
South Africa is the only important
Sheep country where II seems prob
/ able that wool production can be in
creased.
I The obvious conclusion is the one
reached by England before the war
and that must be followed in Amer