OCR Text |
Show Position of Wool In 8baep Husbandry. A Michigan Experiment Station Bulletin says: Can sheep husbandry be made profitable by disregarding en- tirely the wool product? In some few ' favored localities such a course of sheep husbandry may be made profitable, profit-able, but under ordinary conditions the wool product contributes materially material-ly to the net income from the flock. In some instances breeders of mutton mut-ton sheep have realized as much for their wool as the men who have been keeping sheep primarily for the wool which they produce. In making such a claim it should not be forgotten that the American markets in the past have not been glutted with a large supply of the medium and coarse grades of wool, while the scarcity of fine wools, owing to the common stock of the country being largely Merino grades, has not been apparent until within the past few months, although a few of the breeders of Merino sheep have persistently prophesied that former conditions would return, and that the grading up of flocks for the production produc-tion of the finer gradeB of wool would again profitably engage the attention of American sheep men. Fashion in the manufacture of woolen fabrics, which has always been a potent factor fac-tor In the price of different grades of wool, has seemed to encourage the growth of medium and coarse wools. While the future of the wool Industry will be settled by conditions almost entirely beyond tho control of the growers of this country, still everything every-thing points to a brighter prospect for the wool grower than for several years past and especially for the producer pro-ducer of fine Delaine wools. |