Jasper County Democrat, Volume 21, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1918 — RAISE MORE SHEEP [ARTICLE]

RAISE MORE SHEEP

Necessary for Sake of Economic Welfare and Independence. i Steady Decline Is Shown in the Industry in United States in Recent Years. Washington.—The sheep industry In the United States must either adjust Itself to the' changed economic conditions of this diy or continue the decline which has been Its portion in years past. Such is the conclusion reached in a rei*ort is>fied fey the sheep and wool industry by the committee on statistics and standards of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States. / The principal remedies suggested In the report to arrest the present steady decline in our production of sheep are, first, the use for sheep grazing of the. agriculturally worthless and cheap cut-over timber lands of the North, Northwest and South; second, the more general and systematic raising of sheep on farms, where sheep raising has been hitherto neglected largely because of frontier competition; and third, continued use of the great ranges of the West to their full capacity. It can be done. It is a question of education. In 11*00 we had in the United States .SC* sheep per capita. In 1917, the figure dropped to .40 per capita. In 1890 we produced 4.29 pounds of wool per capita. In 1917 only 2.72 pounds per capita. We import now 50 per cent of our wool consumption. We ought to produce that at home ;*aad we can if we wilL Sheep increase rapidly—from 50 to 100 per cent annually as compared with the number of ewes. There is every reason, in the opinion of the committees, why, for the sake of our economic welfare and independence, we should act on the fact that we can raise enough sheep if we will, and reap advantage and profit in. so. doing.;-.;