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Show IS THERE MONEY IN SHEEP? The sheep industry is now most inviting. That is the opinion of Joscr'1 reng of Ogden, one of thebest posted wool men in the country ' 3 estimates that the great wool states of the west have lost over one-third of their flocks and he places the losses, from the severe winter and shipments to the shambles, as follows: Wyoming, 40 per cent; Idaho, 25 per cent; Montana, 30 per cent; Nevada, 40 per cent ; Utah, 25 per cent. As a result of this depleting of the k western ranges, sheep and wool must advance. As indicating the rush of sheep to the eastern markets, there were 75,000 head in the Chicago stockyards and 60,000 head in Omaha on Saturday last. These heavy shipments have been on for months and there can be but one result, the advancing of the price of mutton and wool when the money market again reaches a normal condition and the country wins back the prosperity of three years ago. A prominent wool man says, "Now is the time to buy, with stock sheep at $3.50 to $4 and ewes at $4.50 to $5 a head." That is, if the purchaser has the range. There has been a great change in the sheep industry in the last few years. The free range virtually has disappeared dis-appeared and the sheep owner without land holdings is taking a great risk. The cost of "running sheep" is double what it was fifteen fif-teen years ago and the wool grower must figure on $1.50 as the expense ex-pense on each head of sheep, so that his wool clip, which years ago met all that outlay, now falls short at 16 to 18 cents per pound and an average clip of seven pounds to the animal. But the profit in sheep today is in lambs and wethers. A well-posted well-posted sheepman says ewes, even with wool at its present low figure, should be worth $7 a head, with lambs selling at $4. He further says that, tariff or no tariff, the price of wool and sheep will advance as business generally improves. There is no investment in the west today more inviting than that of the sheep industry. |