SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 49 



that the present prices of wool will materially dimini-sh during the 

 next decade. 



But even if it were certain that the price of wool would fall after 

 a short period, such is the sanguine temperament of men, and so 

 much more influential is an existing fact than a future contingency 

 however certain, in influencing the judgment, that they will more 

 readily embark in an enterprise now palpably succeeding, but like- 

 ly hereafter to fail, than in an enterprise now evidently unprosper- 

 ous, but likely hereafter to succeed. Men always wish they had 

 bought, or invested at a time when prices were low, but only a 

 few shrewd men do so. 



But the field of your operations as a society, is the Western 

 part of Washington county, and to that and our own immediate 

 interests let us confine this discussion. 



Washington county is well adapted to sheep husbandry, because 

 I had almost said it is adapted to nothing else, we are willing to 

 look our disabilities in the face and own that we have not the 

 grain productiveness of the Aroostook valley, nor the excellent 

 pastures of the Kennebec and Sandy rivers, nor the capacity for 

 raising apples of York and Kennebec counties, nor the upland 

 meadows which have made Belfast such a market for excellent 

 hay. Whatever advantages we do have, and I have no wish to 

 slight them, will be every way enhanced by the more general 

 keeping of sheep. 



We have a cold climate unquestionably. Other things being 

 equal, it is safe to conclude that the colder the climate in which the 

 sheep can be kept with comfort to itself, the finer will be its fleece. 

 It has been found that the sheep carried north gains a finer fibre of 

 fleece, and if carried to the tropical regions, either perishes in the 

 migration, or its fine wool degenerates to hair. Hon. Wm. Jar- 

 vis, a distinguished wool grower of Vermont, writes : " There was 

 a general opinion prevalent among the shepherds of Spain, that to 

 retain the soft, flexible and felting properties of the wool, the Me- 

 rinoes must be pastured all the year round. But the experience of 

 the Saxons, and of all those countries where the merinoes have 

 been bred, have proved this opinion to be erroneous. If one was 

 to reason from analogy, we should conclude that the wool grown 

 in a cold climate would be softer than that raised in a warm one, 

 as it is well known that the beaver and all other furred animals 

 found in high Northern latitudes have longer, softer, and thicker 

 4 



