Sheep Raising in Wyoming
This is a subject of so much importance
to the welfare of the people and Territory of Wyoming that I
have thought proper to invite attention to the wonderful
adaptability of this region to the cheap and successful raising
of sheep and wool. J therefore introduce the remarks of the Hon.
J. W. Kingman, United States judge of this Territory, on the
subject. His opportunities for observation on these points have
been extensive, and after a residence of two and a half years in
this region, he is so well convinced of the success which must
follow the business of sheep and wool growing on these elevated
plains, that he has now introduced a flock of 3,000 sheep upon
his ranch near the head of Crow Creek, fifteen miles west of
this city. The judge has favored me with the following account
of his flock and the manner of treating it:
"Laramie City, Wyoming Territory,
September 18, 1871.
"Dear Sir: Your favor of the 15th
instant, asking for a statement of the facts in reference to our
flock of sheep, is received, and it gives me pleasure to reply.
"The flock consists of 3,000 long-wooled
sheep, selected with great care in Iowa last summer. We have
avoided all merino blood, because we wish to cross up with the
Cotswold as rapidly as possible.
"Our object is to see if this region
will not produce a superior quality of combing wool, as well as
a superior mutton. We are confident that the character of our
climate and grazing is so peculiarly adapted to the nature and
habits of sheep that we can carry the improvement of our flocks,
in both these respects, to a degree of perfection never attained
before.
'Indeed, the improvement in the health,
appearance and condition of the sheep thus far is so marked and
uniform that one could hardly believe it to be the same flock
that came here a few months ago, and warrants the utmost
confidence in a permanent and valuable improvement.
"Our cool, dry, even temperature; our
hard, gravelly soil; our short, rich grasses; our clear, pure
water; our aromatic, bitter plants and shrubs, and our frequent
alkaline ponds and licks, must all contribute to the robust
health of the animal and produce a growth and development of all
its functions in their highest perfection.
"It has been said that the long-wooled
sheep are not gregarious, and cannot be well herded in large
flocks. We have not found this difficulty. To be sure, 3,000
makes a large flock, and they require plenty of room; but if
they are well left alone they do not get in each other's way.
and do not care to stray. One man can watch them, and watching
seems to be all the help they need.
"We build, to be sure, large yards, and
long, open sheds, to protect them from the storms, and to keep
off the wolves at night; but we shall soon be rid of the wolves
altogether, and the bluffs afford sufficient shelter at all
seasons of the year.
"There are in this section of the
Territory, besides our flock, one belonging to General King and
others, of about one thousand; Colonel Dana's, of a thousand;
Mr. Homer's, and others, about a thousand; and several parties
are now in the States purchasing flocks to bring here. There are
also the large flocks belonging to Messrs. Creighton and Hutton,
of ten or twelve thousand; and quite a number of small lots,
numbering two or three hundred each.
"Some of these flocks have been here two
or three years, and each year have shown a surprising
improvement. This is particularly so where they have not been
too closely herded, but have been permitted to go out and come
in pretty much as they pleased. The wool has increased in
quantity and fineness, and the mutton has improved in flavor and
quality.
"There seems to be no doubt that the
best quality of mutton can be grown here, pound for pound, as
cheap as beef; and if so, then sheep-raising must be profitable
if cattle raising is. Very respectfully, yours,
"J. W. Kingman
"Dr. Silas Reed,
"Surveyor General, Wyoming Territory."
I also introduce another excellent and
comprehensive letter from Judge Kingman, written to Dr. H.
Latham some months since, and published this summer in the
doctor's valuable pamphlet on the subject of stock and wool
growing in this high, dry, rolling country, which is so
favorable for the growth of the healthiest sheep and the most
valuable fibers of wool.
Letter from Judge Kingman
Laramie City, Wyoming Territory
''Dear Sir:
Your favor of a recent date, asking the result of my
observations on the Rocky Mountain portion of our country in its
adaptation to sheep-raising, is received; I hasten to reply.
"It will be remembered that the natural
habitat of the sheep, as well as the goat and the antelope, is
an elevated mountainous region. They are provided with an
external covering and a constitutional system fitting them to
endure its rigors and subsist on its peculiar herbage. They may
be removed to other regions, it is true, and by careful
husbandry made to flourish in hot climates, on artificial or
cultivated food, and even in rainy and muddy localities.
"But the multiplied diseases to which
they are subjected are convincing proofs that they are exposed
to influences un-natural and uncongenial to their constitutions.
They require a dry, gravelly soil; a clear, bracing, cool
atmosphere; a variety of short, nutritious grasses; and they
love to browse on highly aromatic plants and shrubs, like the
willow, the birch, the hemlock, and the artemisia. In such
circumstances, they are always healthy, vigorous, and active,
and produce the maximum of even fibred wool and the best of
high-flavored meats.
''That we have millions of acres
answering in all respects to the exact requirements for the best
development of sheep, in the production of both wool and meat,
is demonstrated by the countless number of antelope that
annually swarm over the country, and seem to have no limit to
their increase but their natural enemies, the wolves and the
hunters. They are always in good condition, healthy, fat, and
active; and this is particularly noticeable in the winter and
spring, when it might be supposed they would be reduced by cold
and want of food.
"It is well understood by wool-growers
that the great difficulty in producing a staple of uniform
evenness and uniform curve is the variable condition of the
sheep at different seasons of the year. The animal organization
cannot produce the same quality of growth in extreme cold
weather, on dry hay, that it will produce in warm weather, on
fresh grass. The result is that the best quality of wool cannot
be grown where the sheep are exposed to the extremes of climate,
and particularly where they cannot be kept in uniform health and
good condition. If this is true in the growth of wool, it needs
no argument to prove that it is true also in the production of
wholesome and nutritious meat. A generous diet of rich and
various food is required to keep up a rapid and constant growth,
and it is quick growth combined with good health that makes the
choicest meat.
"I have been familiar with sheep-raising
in New England for many years, and although sheep do pretty well
on the rocky hills there, yet they are subject to a frightfully
long list of diseases, every one of which, however, is ascribed
to local and not inherent causes. The one great cause, exceeding
all others in the variety and extent of its evils, is the long
continued rainy weather. The ground gets saturated with water,
the feet become soft and tender with the soaking, and foot
disease is propagated by inoculation with surprising rapidity.
The fleece gets wet, and remaining so for several days keeps the
animal enveloped; this produces pustules, scab, tetter, and
other cutaneous diseases; everything and every place is soaked
and dripping with water during those long storms, and the sheep
are compelled to lie on the wet ground and contract colic,
scours, and stretches, and other bowel diseases. But here, on
our hard, porous, gravelly soil, in a bright, equable climate,
with a dry, bracing atmosphere, having abundance of nutritious
grasses and a great variety of desirable food, the flocks will
find every circumstance contributing to their perfect growth and
development. This is such a country and climate as they
naturally inhabit. Their constitutions are fitted to its
peculiarities, and will produce here their highest
possibilities.
"There is no doubt that any breed of
sheep will do well here, but for various reasons I would advise
the introduction of the best qualities of mutton-sheep in
preference to the fine-wooled animals. In the first place they
are hardier and more prolific, and will undoubtedly improve
faster; and in the second place, while it is possible to
overstock the market with wool by importation from foreign
countries, it is not possible to overstock the meat-market. We
have now 40,000,000 of people, and the annual increase is about
3,000,000; our people are all meat-eaters, the price of meat in
our large cities is enormously high, and the annual production
by no means keeps pace with the demand for consumption. But in
addition to all this, the actual return in wool, from a flock of
medium-wooled sheep, will nearly equal in value the net product
of a fine-wooled flock. They produce heavier fleeces, and the
price of wool bears a better ratio to its cost.
"Most of our flock-masters are
purchasing the sheep flocks of New Mexico and the extreme
Western States, with the expectation of getting good animals by
crossing. This may be done, it is true, but I do not think it
likely to result satisfactorily. It requires too much care and
judicious selection, as well as long continued effort, to get
rid of bad qualities and fix permanently good ones. We can get
sheep, by going further east, which have been carefully improved
for fifty years, and in which characteristics have been
developed by a scientific breeding which we may not hope to
equal. Such a flock will cost more to start with, and will be
worth more, but may not have cost more, all things considered,
after a few years. Very respectfully yours,
"J. W. Kingman."
The Future of the Wool Interest of the
Northwest
With such a sheep and wool-growing
country as we have here, "endless, gateless, and boundless";
with such a great increasing home and foreign demand; with such
examples of rapid increase in sheep and wool productions, who
shall doubt that in twenty years we shall rival Australia and
South America in not only the quantity but the quality of their
wools, and that the wool-buyers from all the great manufacturing
centers of the world will visit our plains in search of the "fibre"
susceptible of such wonderful and varied uses, and that with our
wool production there will spring up manufactories here and
there that shall rival Bradford, Huddersfield, Halifax, and
Leeds, in England, and Rheims, El-Beufs, and Roubaix, in France,
in the magnitude and beauty of their fabrics?
Along the whole length of the Union
Pacific Railway, along the Central Pacific Railway, in the
valleys of the thousands of streams, bordered with timber for
buildings and fences, these untold millions of acres of
luxuriant grazing lands, where sheep can be put down from New
Mexico, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and other States for two
dollars per head, shepherds can be hired for $30 to $40 per
month, who can readily herd 3,000 head. Thousands of tons of hay
can be cut on all the streams.
Rates of Freight to Eastern Markets,
Wool has been carried by rail from San Francisco to Boston for
$1.10 per hundred pounds. Double decked sheep-cars, carrying 200
sheep, can be had from the base of the mountain to Chicago
markets for $150, thereby putting down fat wethers in market for
75 cents per head. Dressed-mutton carcasses are delivered from
the Rocky Mountains, in New York, for $1.75 per hundred,
car-load rates.
Growth of Wyoming Sheep Industry The
large introduction of sheep into this Territory during the past
season is very gratifying. The correct and valuable information
that has been spread over the country by Dr. Latham, Judge
Kingman, and others, has attracted the most deserved attention,
and the result is that large numbers of sheep have been brought
in this summer. I hear also of other large flocks that are to
come next spring; and I scarcely need say that half the sheep of
the United States could find room and food upon our mountain
plains without being too much crowded.
Principle Flocks and Names of Owners
Colonel E. Creighton & Co., on Laramie
Plains -10,000
Winslow, on Laramie Plains -1,500
Sargent, Thomas & Co., on Laramie Plains - 2,000
Moulton & Co., on Laramie Plains - 2,000
Dana & Boswell, on Laramie Plains - 1,000
Judge Kingman, Crow Creek - 3,000
James Moore, Lodge Pole - 9,000
Maynard, Lone Tree - 1,500
General King & Co - 1,000
Party from Socco, Mexico - 2,000
Emory Boston - 3,000
Carmichael - 200
|
