Sheep came into our western states early in the seventies, at a time when these states were thinly settled, but following the sheep came the labor incident to its care, and thus the railroads, stores, cities and schoolhouses found their way into the land. Originally all of our sheep industry was east of the Mississippi River. Then for a time it was east of the Missouri River. To-day west of the Missouri River we have about 23,000,000 aged sheep, or more than one-half of the total in the United States. In the pioneer days the western sheep skirmished on the range for most of the food that it obtained. To-day conditions are different, and, while the sheep is on the range for a short time each year, it spends its summer in the National Forest, for which grazing a fee is paid to the Federal Government. Its winters are spent largely around the hay-stack of the farmer, and about fifty to sixty cents’ worth of hay is fed to each sheep in the West each winter. With the coming of spring the western sheep are divided into bands of about 1500, and each two bands are placed in care of three caretakers, who care for and protect the sheep either on the deeded land of the owner or on the land rented from the Federal Government. [Illustration: SHEEP COMING OUT OF FOREST] How Much Wool Does America Produce Yearly? So much for the history of our sheep. A few words now about wool. The total wool crop of the United States is approximately 300,000,000 pounds per year. The value of this crop is around $60,000,000 annually. How Do We Get the Wool Off the Sheep? With the coming of spring our sheep are driven to large central plants, where they are shorn by the use of machines driven by electricity or steam power. One man shears about one hundred and fifty sheep per day. For this he receives eight cents per head. When the wool is taken off the sheep it is gathered up and carefully tied with string made of paper. The tied fleece is then dropped into an elevator, and is carried up about ten feet, where it is dropped into a large sack about three feet in diameter and seven feet long. In this sack there is always a wool tramper, who keeps tramping the fleeces down, so that about forty fleeces are finally put into each sack, making the weight of the sack approximately three hundred pounds. As these sacks are filled they are carefully stored in a dry shed, and, when shearing is completed, are hauled to the railroad station and shipped to the great wool centers of Boston or Philadelphia. While the bulk of the wool in the United States is produced west of the Missouri River, that territory manufactures very little wool. So the western sheepman, who is thus forced to grow his wool in the western states, pays about two cents a pound freight on it back to the eastern market, where it is sold and later manufactured into cloth. A part of this same clothing is then shipped west, to be sold to the very man, in some instances, who produced the wool out of which it is made.