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Show LrveStDClcl , ; . SituatiorLl dSt-P NA"fr"jffip ' I Los Angeles,, May' 14, 1938 Economic importance of the sheep and wool business in California is emphasized this month when the annual California ram sale is held at Sacramento, May 24 and 25. This is one of the largest sales ot improved rams hld- in United States, because California is not only one of the largest wool growing grow-ing states in America, but (the state's production of early lambs has for many years been outstanding outstand-ing for h i ti h quality. There are around 18,000,000 shcip and Iambs slaughtered annually an-nually in the United States, and of this total, California accounts for approximately 2,500,000 each year. Mortovir, Cnlifornians themselves lire yicat lamb consumers, eating iibout three or fuur times as much lamb per capita as citizens of the Unite!! States as a whole. California, Cali-fornia, with abou.t 5 per cent ot the population of the United States, eats .the product of approximately ap-proximately 2,000,000 sheep and lamibs, or about 12 per cent of the Wtal United States production. The sheep business has been oi great economic importance in California since the Pacific coast was first settled by the Spaniards In those days the sheep flocks were largely of Merino blood, a breed thai was mainly valuable for fine wool production. California's Califor-nia's sheep business continued mainly for wool production iinitil the close of the 19th century. As the population increased, there was a continually greater demand for meat foods and graduallly the dual purpose sheep has been developed de-veloped that is, . (breeds were introduced that were valuable both for wool and for meat production. So outstanding has been the development de-velopment of high quality mutton breeds that California's early lamb production has become nationally na-tionally famous for high quality. Result is that around 500,OOU California early Iambs are annually annual-ly shipped to the middle west ana Atlantic coast where the high quality product commands a premium. pre-mium. Besides, due to the mild winter climate, it is possible to produce "spring" lamibs 60 to 90 days earlier in California than in other major sheep sections. Today, the sheep business provides pro-vides California with an annua) cash income of around $18,000,000 The state's flocks had an inventory inven-tory value, according to the United States Depaftmen of Agriculture of $25,622,000 on January 1, 1938. Sixty years ago, the state had 7,-700,000 7,-700,000 sheep and lambs about twice as many as at present with an inventory value of $15,400,000 |