Sheep Are Now Raised In The State To The Extent Of
Half A Million, And A Chronic Feud Prevails Between
The "sheep
men" and the "cattle men." Sheep-raising is said to be a very
profitable business, but its risks
And losses are greater, owing
to storms, while the outlay for labor, dipping materials, etc.,
is considerably larger, and owing to the comparative inability of
sheep to scratch away the snow from the grass, hay has to be
provided to meet the emergency of very severe snow-storms. The
flocks are made up mostly of pure and graded Mexicans; but though
some flocks which have been graded carefully for some years show
considerable merit, the average sheep is a leggy, ragged beast.
Wether mutton, four and five years old, is sold when there is any
demand for it; but except at Charpiot's, in Denver, I never saw
mutton on any table, public or private, and wool is the great
source of profit, the old ewes being allowed to die off. The
best flocks yield an average of seven pounds. The shearing
season, which begins in early June, lasts about six weeks.
Shearers get six and a half cents a head for inferior sheep, and
seven and a half cents for the better quality, and a good hand
shears from sixty to eighty in a day. It is not likely that
sheep-raising will attain anything of the prominence which
cattle-raising is likely to assume. The potato beetle "scare" is
not of much account in the country of the potato beetle.
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