Sheep-raising in the Ukraine decreased considerably within the last decades of the 19th Century, as a result of Australian competition. Formerly, the Southern Ukraine was one of the most important wool producing regions of the world. The decline of the sheep-raising industry has been accelerated a great deal by the transformation of the steppes into farmland. The immense flocks of sheep which roamed the Ukrainian steppes under the care of semi-nomadic shepherds are a thing of the past. Nevertheless, about 10 million sheep can still be found in the Ukraine. The greatest part of them is raised in the Don region, the Kuban region, Tauria, Katerinoslav and Bessarabia. Just as in the other branches of live-stock-breeding, [274]so also in the matter of sheep-raising, the most important part is performed by the peasant. The peasants breed chiefly coarse-wooled sheep of various breeds. These sheep can graze three-fourths of the year out in the steppes. The large landowners raise far less sheep, but these belong to the fine-wooled Merino breed, the raising of which is more expensive, but also more profitable. In very recent years the peasants have at last begun to engage in breeding the fine-wooled varieties. Sheep-raising is very important in the districts of Chernihiv, Poltava and Kharkiv, where, in the year 1900, there were 3½ million sheep (3 million of which belonged to peasants). Here the greatly renowned Reshetilov breed of sheep is raised. The remaining districts of the Ukraine carry on very little sheep-raising. Only in the Carpathians is it an important branch of industry of the population. Here the coarse-wooled mountain-sheep graze in the mountain pastures, and bring almost greater profit thru their dairy products and skins than thru their wool. Goats are found very rarely in the Ukraine, almost exclusively in the Carpathian, Yaila and Caucasus Mountains. Hog-raising, however, is perhaps the most important source of income of the poorer Ukrainian peasantry, and as such it is common everywhere in the Ukraine, most of all in Chernihiv, Volhynia and Kuban. Besides sty-breeding, extensive breeding is carried on in some districts. On the lower Dnieper and Dniester large droves of swine remain in the plavni all summer and fall. Improved breeds of English hogs (Yorkshire, Berkshire, etc.) are not common in the Ukraine and easily degenerate, while the most common breeds, the Russian, the Polish and the southern curly-haired variety, are very hard to fatten. Camels are kept only in the southeastern steppes of the Ukraine (Tauria, Don region, Stavropol), buffaloes only in Bessarabia, asses and mules in Bessarabia and Tauria. [275]