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by bringing together at our fairs the best animals in the 

 State, a market would be opened, through which all could be 

 supplied with valuable breeding animals. 



Mr. HoUoway said that he regarded wool growing as one 

 of the most lucrative branches of farming, especially in hilly 

 counties. There the land was best adapted for sheep, and 

 least suitable for the plough. In some parts of the State the 

 sheep were disposed to the liver rot, as the disease was com- 

 monly called, but he knew a farmer who had effectually 

 avoided it by sowing in his sheep pastures some of the seed 

 of the common parsley — about one quart to the acre. But 

 of all enemies to the sheep, the dog is the wost. A farmer 

 in Wayne county at one time owned a flock of nearly two 

 thousand, which have been almost destroyed by dogs. A 

 large number were killed by them, and others become dis- 

 eased by the continual frights they were subjected to. There 

 was not now one sheep in ten that was formerly raised in 

 that county. And yet when this subject is brought before 

 our Legislatures for their consideration, it becomes, usually, 

 a subject of merriment. 



An opinion had been expressed this evening by Mr. Boll- 

 man, that a great error in sheep raising arose from breeding 

 in and in, and that disease and deterioration was the conse- 

 quence. This opinion he knew was regarded as correct but 

 he had recently read a French work, which recommended 

 this kind of breeding to improve the fineness of the wool. 



Mr. BoUman said that the expression " breeding in and in " 

 in this county denoted the practice of allowing the parent to 

 cross with its own offlspring, and he was well satisfied that 

 both experience and physiological facts would bear him out in 

 his -condemnation of the practice. But in Europe the expres- 

 sion may mean nothing more than to breed through the 

 same species. Thus if fineness of the wool is sought for by 

 one having a flock of Merinos, they ought not to be crossed by 

 a Saxon buck, but by a Merino. This he presumed was all 

 that is meant by the French authority referred to. But a 



