Finishing January 1924 News

Sheep men were concerned in January 1924 with varies problems such as rabies, freight rates and range land.

Several articles appeared in the January newspapers on the problem of rabies that, if not checked, could have dire consequences for the sheep men who were just lambing this month. It was reported that there were more coyotes than ever in Arizona with concentration of them in the central and southern parts. It was very concerning the high numbers of coyotes in the central area with this part of the sheep lambing grounds. It was believed that the disease had spread to domestic dogs when coyotes invaded ranch yards and bitten the dogs. It was stressed to the sheepmen that all coyotes and stray dogs be killed to keep the disease from further spreading within the state.

Reduction in freight rates for wool from Phoenix and Flagstaff were recommended to the interstate commerce commission through cooperation of the American Wool Growers’ Association membership at their annual meeting. Arizona’s freight rates were higher than other western states whether the wool was shipped to Pacific coast points or directly to Boston via railroad. For example San Francisco could ship to Boston from $1.35 to $1.70 per hundred pounds while Phoenix the charge was $3.00. A reduction in transportation cost meant a larger savings to the sheep men.

Along with the discussion of freight rates from Arizona was a discussion of having a warehouse to store the wool for when the market was more favorable. Dumping the wool on the market when prices were low was not a good economic decision but without a storage facility, little options did the wool growers have. Construction of a warehouse and a manufacturing facility in Los Angeles have been planned by the Pioneer Pacific Worsted Mills. Construction was to begin immediately. (As to this topic, a more thorough search needs to be made to find more details upon which finding them they will be reported in a future blog).

Flagstaff sheepmen who use the desert in and around the Salt River Valley were becoming concerned that the lands that they formerly grazed were becoming more scarce each year. More and more of the land was being passed into private ownership taking these lands away from the wool raisers. As this land became more scarce, rental prices advanced to be out of the reach of many of the smaller sheep outfits. (Note: This was one of the reasons that the men who had raised sheep sold out and pursued other avenues of work.)

A few little tidbits found:

A brand was applied for by T. A. Nicholas of Florence during the month. I don’t remember seeing his name in later years newspapers.
A lawsuit had been filed by sheep and cattle men from Utah who were being charged 25 cents a head on all sheep and 50 cents a head for cattle for inspection for their animals to use the Northern Strip, i.e. the Arizona Strip. They believed that it was unconstitutional for one state to charge another state duties that were more than what the inspection cost would amount to. An update will follow as more papers are researched.
Sheep men or an outfit cited for various reasons included John Hennessy, A.A. Johns, and Grand Canyon Sheep Company
A film about the Salt River Valley featured sheep herds.

Stay tuned for February 1924.

A picture and a Conference.

Thanks to everyone who continues to follow my blog. I don’t always get the time to post as much as I would like to. Today’s blog will include a picture from The Stockman, July 1959. I love when I can add pictures as a picture is worth a thousand words and, in fact, we are getting three pictures in one here. The caption has been included.

I am also including information of the first national lamb and wool conference that was to be held during August of 1960 in Laramie, Wyoming. In the 1950s lamb and wool prices were down and the industry was being reduced – by the numbers in the business, price for the wool and lamb sold for meat. This not only affected the sheep raisers but the textile manufacturers, who also attended the conference.

The main aim of the conference was “to improve the economic position of the sheep industry and to enable it to better fulfill its responsibility to the consuming public and to the nation through… examination of problems, … review of new developments, and … stimulation of industry action”.

Hopefully in future The Stockman information will be forthcoming on the decisions that the two industries agreed upon to improve the economic outlook for both sheep raisers and the textile manufacturers. Nevertheless, I will be pursuing this conference from other sources if The Stockman does not report on it. The magazine had a few more years of publication; however, I have only found two more years. Luckily, this won’t be the only source of information for this conference.

So, stay tuned as further research is needed to report on the happening at this conference!

April 1923 Sheep Facts

Just some short snippets of sheep happenings appeared during the month of April 1923 to report on the sheep industry. Leonard D. Cox applied for sheep brands as was posted in the Winslow Daily Mail, April 6, 1923.

Even back in 1923, sheep raisers had lots of sheep as found in the April 13, 1923, The Coconino Sun. It seemed that John Pollard had been in Seligman the better part of a week where he was supervising the dewooling of some 25,000 head of sheep for the Hudspeth Sheep Company.

Other sightings were that sheep raisers, Ramon Aso, Harlow Yaeger and Charlie Woolfolk had spent time in Flagstaff as they took a break from their flocks. But sheep raisers Dan. M. Francis and Charlie De Ryder were heading to their shearing operations to oversee the work. It was reported that De Ryder had extensive sheep ranges in the Yuma area. M. I. Powers was also supervising the shearing of his sheep.

Little pieces of news about different sheep raisers help to tell who was in the business at any given time and thus those names can be looked for in newspapers in future months and years. As I look at earlier newspapers, I have names to search for also. Someday I will have a complete record of all those sheep raisers as not all of them were members of the Arizona Wool Producers Association.