SHEEP HUSBANDRY. . 55 



mate produces more abundant and finer fleeces ; over the Prairie 

 States, in that our dry and lean pasture lands give additional fine- 

 ness to the staple ; over our neighbors in Vermont, New Hamp- 

 shire, Aroostook and Kennebec counties, because our open win- 

 ters shorten the foddering season, and with our cooler summers 

 make our climate a very little more uniform than further interior, 

 where the extremes of heat and cold are somewhat greater. 



So far as proximity to market is concerned, we certainly have 

 the advantage over most of the sheep-keeping regions of the 

 country. Boston is, and will long continue, the great wool mart of 

 the United States ; and the freight by sea from any of our coast 

 towns must be considerably less, than the railway freights from 

 the interior of Vermont. 



Perhaps we shall be able to discover what this eastern county 

 was ^ade for, a problem hitherto not void of diflSculty. The 

 lumberman has ravaged and burnt it, the fisherman has dried his 

 nets upon it, and after them you farmers have tried to enrich and 

 subdue it for the raising of potatoes, hay and cattle. But its true 

 destiny may be to be the place 



" Where shepherds watch their flocks by night, 

 All seated on the ground." 



and when they do, the angel of prosperity may come down upon it. 



Let us now consider what returns may be expected from keeping 

 sheep in this county with such facilities as we have. The items 

 of cost are, first, winter foddering and provender ; second, summer 

 pasturage ; third, washing and shearing. There will of course be 

 more or less expense in driving to and from pasture, changing pas- 

 turage, taking up bucks and lambs, and the winter care. But 

 these light labors of the farmer are to be offset by his profits, and 

 are too uncertain to enter into a schedule of expenses. Then there 

 is the loss by sickness, by thieves, by dogs, wolves and bears ; but 

 these every sanguine keeper hopes to avoid altogether. Like losses 

 by fire and flood, they destroy all calculations. If wolves or dogs 

 devour our whole flocks, of course not only our nett profits, but 

 our capital stock and outlay upon it are gone. So we lay this out 

 of the account, and proceed to estimate the certain and ordinary 

 items of cost. Three-fourths of this is the winter foddering. 



What it will cost to winter well a hundred sheep depends upon 

 the size, ages and kind of sheep kept, and upon the length of time 

 they are foddered. The cost of hay to a man who raises it, is less 



