Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1934-06-07

Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington. D. C.-WNU Service
HEEP owners of the United
States produce about 350,O00,00O
~ pounds of wool annually, or
enough to supply each inhabi.
tant of this country with wool gar
ment weighing nearly three pounds.
The lowly sheep from which comes
the worlds yearly wool supply of slight
ly less than three and third billion
pounds, is no respector Of persons or
geography. A meeting of all the
worlds wool growers would reveal
motley gathering of all creeds and
colors, from Icelanders to South Afri-
cans, from Canadians to Argentines,
from Siberians to Indians. There also
would be present natives Of many is
| lands of the seas.
The sheep-raising industry is pretty
well confined to the temperate zones,
however, though some flocks Craze
near the Equator in high attitudes,
and others are found in the Arctic.
where there is sufficient forage.
The worlds sheep population is
more than 50O,000,000-a quarter as
great as the human population. Aus
tralia, although a comparative young
Ster in the wool industry, is the worlds
leading wool producer. India and
| China are the outstanding sheep coun-
tries of Asia. Argentina and Uruguay
have the heaviest sheep population in
South America. The greatest concen-
tration Of sheep herds In Africa Is
| along the Mediterranean coastal zone
from Gibraltar to Tunisia, and In
South Africa. Every country Of Eu-
rope raises sheep, but In Norway,
Sweden and Finland there are few
flocks, scattered over wide areas The
United States, with upwards of 50,0OO,-
900 head of sheep, is the only country
in North America that has taken to
wool growing in big way.
Where Americas Sheep Are.
About four-ffths of the sheep in the
United States Craze in the mountains
and on the plateaus and plains west
of the Mississippi river. Texas, which
has been dubbed the Cotton State"
and the Sulphur State" because of
It's supremacy in the production Of
these commodities, also has earned the
right to be called the "Wool State"
In 1882, its contribution to the United
States pile of wool was about $1,000
600 pounds, or about one-sixth Of the
wool produced in this country. Mon
tana, whose sheep gave up more than
32,000,OOO pounds in the same year,
ranked next to the Lone Star state,
with Wyoming, oregon, Utah, Califor-
mia, New Mexico, Idaho, and Ohio,
each of which produced more than 49,
100000 pounds, following in the order
named.
AS in the case Of cotton, historians
and naturalists have been stumped by
the query, "when and where was wool
first used?" Sheep and wool are men
toned in the Bible and 1t Is known
that the Romans practiced sheep
breeding. Some of their prize animals
wore jackets to protect the fleece.
Shortly after the beginning of the
Christian era an Italian took several
sheep from Italy to Spain to breed
them with the native merino sheep.
Incidentally, the merino sheep produce
the finest Of woods, and have been bred
with many other inferior sheep to i'm
prove the latter's fleece.
The growth Of the wool industry in
the United States has been phenom-
email. Two years after Capt. John
Smith and his followers landed on the
Virginia coast the first sheep were In
troduced into America at their settle
ment. Twenty-one years later a ship
ment of the feecy animals from Eu-
rope was landed on the Massachusetts,
coast. Indians appetltes, predatory
animals and severe winters made seri-
GUS inroads on the colonial hocks, 80
most of the animals were kept inside
town walls, on islands, and on PENN
sulas fenced off from the mainland.
While Indians no longer are menace
to wool growers, predatory animals,
parasites, and poisonous plants still
cause great losses to the industry.
Growth Of the Wool Industry.
AS cotton clothed the colonists of
the South, wool clothed those Of the
North. Private homes then were
Americas wooden factories. The Amer
lean wool trade began when sheep
owning families exchanged their wool
and surplus homespun for other COM
modlties. With the increase in coloni-
al population the demand for wool
cloth rose and the federal government
as we'll as local governments encour-
aged wool growing.
BY 1910, just two centuries after the
sheep arrived from England, there