SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 



51 



Although there may be some inaccuracies in these statistics,* 

 and although the greater weight of fleece in the last named States 

 may be due to the introduction of improved breeds and to superior 

 management, the results are too striking to deny the apparent fact 

 that sheep of the United States yield in the Northern tier of States, 

 more than twice as much wool per head as they do in the Southern 

 tier of States. By this law the fleece of the Maine sheep should 

 be heavier than those of New York, but it must be remembered 

 that only the coast of Maine is much peopled, where the thermorn- 

 eter in winter does not range lower than in the interior of New 

 York, and also that Maine has done far less than the other states 

 named in this list in improving its native sheep. This becomes 

 apparent from the fact that though Maine had 650,000 sheep in 

 1840, it produced but 1,465,000 pounds of wool, but 2 2-lOths 

 pounds per head. In 1860, when she had fewer sheep b}'- nearly 

 one-third, the State produced more wool per head by one-half. 

 From this fict it is probable that when our State shall have gone 

 as far as New Hampshire and Vermont in the improvement of the 

 breed of its sheep, its clip of wool will be even greater than theirs, 

 on account of its better climatic situation. Facts and theory there- 

 fore combine to establish the rule : Sheep produce heavier fleeces 

 at the North than at the South, and in the East than the West 

 of the United States. 



The foregoing reasonings and facts tend 'to show that the part of 

 the United States where the sheep yields the largest return of wool is 

 Maine, and the region of a corresponding climate. I think we may 

 go farther and say that Washington county possesses advantages 

 for sheep husbandry over any other part of the State. Take the two 

 or three tiers of towns lying next the coast from Fassamaquoddy 



* I am aware that statistics collected.by the United States Census Bureau are to 

 be taken with some grains of allowance. Since the Census of 1840 put down more 

 insane colored persons to whole districts of the Free States than there were colored 

 persons in such districts, and inasmuch as the Abstract of the 8th Census insists 

 upon giving Maine's proportion of Indian population 3 males and 2 females, one 

 cannot always feel perfectly safe in building a very complicated or doubtful theory 

 on the Census data. I see no reason why Indiana, into which improved sheep could be 

 easily introduced from Ohio, where they produce 3,4 lbs. of wool per head, should pro- 

 duce only 1,1 lbs. of wool per head, for its large amount of sheep, while Illinois with 

 fewer sheep and no better conditions produces 3,2 lbs. per head. The probability is 

 that both these figures are erroneous, and that the production ranges somewhere 

 between Missouri 2,2 per lead and Michigan 2,8 per head. The two errors will 

 perhaps about correct each other, leaving the aggregate to stand as I have stated it. 



