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Show Sheep rtal.t. la Illinois. I 'X tlio coureo of an address on this tubjeet, Hon J. M Bell, prealdent of Ihe Illinois Sheep Breeders' amocls- ' don, aald. rifty-flve years ago we had tho poor- I est sheep you ever saw. They would tot be railed sheep now. After a while we realised we had to have better sheep or quit tho bualneae When wo had to fence tho sheep wo got better sheep. As time went along the business didn't I pay aa well aa we wanted 11 to, nnd we had to have heavier fleeces, and they grow heavier and heavier, nnd then ramo thla depression, and mutton was In demand, nnd tho sheep wo used to havo were not qulto the thing we thought. Then we had to have a larger sheep. We put on the mutton attach' tnent, and I found when I mado ln estimations es-timations for the agricultural department depart-ment that tho man In ISO who hnd mutton In their flocks wero pretty well satisfied, and tho men who didn't have mutton In their flocks didn't know what they were going to do. In Illinois our situation Is particularly particu-larly hnppy nnd particularly sorry. We j have the best hnd on onrth. Wo can rslto mure corn than anybody. We can raise as much clover hay as anybody. We ran havo tho best bluo grass postures pos-tures of anybody, and Just aa much of them, and as you hnvo heard of the excellence of bluo grots pasture for cattle to It Is for sheep. Hut ws are drifting In the right direction. We kept sheep a long tlmo ago and thought we novcr would raise mutton In thla country. It Is raited everywhero now In tho United Btates. Thero Isn't a district out west whers mutton Is not Included In their flocks. Wo can beat tho world If we try, and It Itn't very hard for Illinois people to try. Wo aro today aurrounded by corn-flelde. corn-flelde. In my own county we havo com to burn, It It cheaper In Msoon coiuty than anywhere elte. Why? Blmply because thero la no corn fed there. Why Is Nebraska to eucceastul , and prosperous? Why sro they getting 40o a bushel for their corn fed to sheep? They aro raising tho corn and feeding It to tho sheep right on their farms and paying off their mortgages. Why should we not do tho same way? This thing will have to be done, and I Insist In-sist upon It wo shall breed our own sheep. It will pay us better to feed our corn and our oata and our bay to , well bred sheep than to range sheep. There aro thousands of acres of land In thla country that ought never to bs plowed enopier time. They ahould bo put Into paature. These landa mutt be kept up. Those poor farmt mutt be recuperated, and nothing can do It to thoroughly and quickly aa sheep. I bo-Ilovo bo-Ilovo tho tlmo It coming, haa come, when wo will hnvo to Improve our landt or abandon them, as they have In tho older slates. I havo great hope 1U the young men of our state. They will "catch on" to the best methods of raising rais-ing sheep, adopt all tho system thero Is In commercial sheep raising, study tho adaptation of breeds to tho purposes they wsnt, and tho adaptation of breeds means, snd breed our own sheep on our poor lands, our stats wilt be moro prosperous than It has been since the war, when our lands wore nswer. |