Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1921-04-16
sheep INDUSTRY
means WEALTH

Hugh Sproat, president OF the lda-
no Woolgrowers association in a re-
cent article states:
"Woolgrowing is one OF the
pioneer industries of Idaho me
first sheep were brought into the
southern portion of the state by the
late John HALEY, about 1873 but IL
was not until about 10 years later
that Idaho began to rank as lead
ing sheep state. Robert Noble, IN
Owyhee county, and j. D. Wood, IN
southeastern Idaho, began to run
| considerable numbers in the 6O's
and by 1890, the number of sheep
in the state must have Appropriated
two and half to three million
head, which numbers we have since
had with little variation.
Senator Frank R. Gooding and his
brothers, Fred and Tom, with their
Lincoln lambs, and John and Tom
Mcmillan with their Hampshires,
were the pioneers in the fat ldaho
lamb shipments, along about 1895
Ever since that time Idaho lamb mas
held first rank on the Chicago and
river markets, as the lamb par ex-
cellence of the western range. Ida
no has produced in these years in
the neighborhood of seven hundred
million pounds of wool, which at an
average price of 16 cents per pound,
would aggregate one hundred and
twelve million dollars. During the
past rs years approximately one
have been sold annually, or total
of thirty-seven million five humid
red thousand lambs. Valuing them
at an average of $500 per head,
would give a total of one hundred
fifty three million dollars. Allowing
an additional thirty-five million dol
lars for wethers and ewes sold as
mutton during the same time, we
find the total of approximately three
hundred million dollars cash brought
into the state by the wool-growing
industry.
Until the past year, people gem
orally have failed to recognize the
Importance of the industry of the
|, state. The wool clip is the first
J farm crop to be marketed in the
: spring. In normal years shearing
begins along in March in the early
districts and the proceeds from such
sales are the first eastern moneys
! brought into the state. The Febr-
| uary lambs begin to move in june
. and continue during the summer and
5 fall months. A total of from fif-
| teen million dollars to twenty mil
$ lion dollars annually from wool and
| mutton is distributed through the
| towns a1Sff1n ham1ets Of southern Ida
no.
| Wartime conditions bringing in
: creased cost of operation, lack of
: tariff, surplus of woods in foreign
, countries, and a deprecated foreign
} exchange, making this country a
| dumping ground have adversely af-
{ fected our market. Idaho paid the
highest freight rates on wool CT
) any state in the union, and the
: blanket raise allowed the railroads
{ last August has advanced our wool
5 rates to approximately $3.50 per
: cwt, on wool to Boston. AS pracfi-
] cally all of the Idaho wool goes east
for manufacture the freight bill on
!. the raw products amounts to seven
r hundred thousand dollars. The back
r haul of the manufactured articles
: also amounts to considerable money
e Every 100 poufT.S oil Idaho WOO
contains so pounds of dirt. Scour.
ing the wool in Idaho would reduc,
the shipping weight go per cent
But why stop at securing? W.
have the power in our streams t.
:. make this one of the formost manu-
featuring states. Our climatic con
ditions are ideal for a large manu-
: featuring population and our farm
produce in abundance food stuffs t,
feed them. All that we lack is Thu
initiative in the manufacturing
: field. The south is establishing it
cotton mills, and the large operator
in Fall River, Mass, are concerned
over the competition. Idaho offer
more favorable living condition
than the southern states, and tn
times is. at hand when we should n
longer suffer the injustice of tn
eastern manufacturers.