l8 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



Sheep. 



In the State of Maine at the present time there are scarcely 

 one-seventh of the sheep that there were forty years ago. At 

 one time, in the State of New York, there were 6,500,000 sheep. 

 At present they have about 500,000. It is true that at the time 

 New York had 6,500,000 sheep there was no such place as 

 Montana or Wyoming in the business, and but little was known 

 about Texas. The vast ranges of the West where sheep could 

 be produced for practically nothing, upon the wild grass of the 

 plains, gave the first shock to the Eastern sheep growers, but 

 this was not the worst blow to the industry. There was a time 

 when sheep had a three-fold value. Their tallow was abso- 

 lutely essential for light, their wool could not be dispensed 

 with for cloth, and their meat was an acceptable food. Today, 

 the tallow has absolutely disappeared from the market as a 

 lighting product, and wool has become of very much less 

 importance since cotton manufacturers have demonstrated 

 again and again that the flannel made from cotton is as acrent- 

 able as that made from wool, and almost as warm. It is sup- 

 posable that the sheep industry may drop back to a place very 

 much inferior in the agriculture of the future to what it has 

 been in the agriculture of the past. It is a fact that sheep 

 enthusiasts believe that sheep will again become one of the 

 dominant animals of the livestock industry. I hope this indus- 

 try will advance from the place it now holds to one more 

 prominent. It does not, however, seem consistent that it should. 

 Temporary causes have again and again been alleged for this 

 declining, such as destruction by dogs, or some other cause, 

 but I do not feel as though these grounds were well taken. 



Inspection of Petroleum Products. 



At a meeting of the National Commissioners' Association it 

 was my pleasure to learn that the State of South Carolina 

 inspects petroleum products, the largest of which, at the pres- 

 ent time, is gasoline. They use as their standard the German 

 residuary test th?t- there shall not exceed eisiht per cent of 

 kerosene in the gasoline of commerce. Our gasoline sold in 

 the State of Maine contains from 43 per cent to 48 per cent 

 kerosene. This affects every phase of trade and manufacture 



