CAN THE AVERAGE FARM BE MADE PROFITABLE. 41 



be kept; their natural adaptation to our soil and climate, as well as their 

 capability of doinj^ well in large flocks. To breed for wool, care should be 

 taken to select animals with good bone and robust constitution. Then see 

 to it that they are covered from the nose to the extremities with a thick, 

 long, desirable staple of wool, and then feed them in such a manner that the 

 animal should be in good condition, but feed with especial reference to the 

 amount of wool. Breeding ewes, of course, in winter, should be a partial 

 exception. If you are breeding thoroughbred Merinos, don't go to extremes, 

 either for size, wrinkles, short or long fleeces. Get as many desirable quali- 

 ties in one sheep as possible. Be sure and have a good pedigree, one that 

 means something, but don't take too much stock in the " Atwood " craze, 

 unless the sheep are better than the "Atwoods" and Paular co-^ibined. 

 Profits always follow a successful course of stock-raising. It is wicked to 

 not give your stock enough food in the winter, thereby throwing away what 

 flesh was gathered iii the summer. Too much time is wasted in the winter. 

 Too little thought is given to our business, as farmers. A farmer sliould 

 know something of law and medicine, and he should have enough moral 

 principle about him to be an honesL man, and this comprises about all there 

 is in the scale of human acquirements. 



Mr Peabody: For profit, there must be back of the Merino sheep a fair 

 price for wool, and that there is not at the present time. The mutton 

 breeds, however, are always profitable. I breed Oxford Downs. They 

 generally breed twins, and it is no trouble by good feeding to produce lamb 

 wethers weighing 140 to 150 pounds at one year old, when they will sell for 

 5^ to 6 cents per pound. 



Our nea.ness to markets gives us an adv ntage in production of mutton, 

 while in wool growing it counts for but little. 



My sheep unquestionably eat more than the fine wools. I admit freely 

 that Merinos wil' live on a pasture when almost as thick as sardines in a box. 



Mr. Ball: I do not especially advocate Merinos. I advocate anything 

 that will take the place of scrubs, of those sheep that shear only 2 or 3 lbs. 

 There will be many such sheared this spring. There are localities in which 

 the mutton breeds will be best, but nowhere is the scrub the best. My point 

 is, that a man who has become fitted by long years of care and study to grow 

 wool or succeed in any other industry should not desert that calling because 

 of a momentary dullness in that line. 



CAN THE AVERAGE FARM BE MADE PROFITABLE? 



BY J. J. SNOOK, OF ROCHESTER. 

 [Read before the Farmers' Institute at Rochester, Feb. 4, 1886.] 



From my observation and experience I cheerfully say that farming can be 

 made profitable on the average farm. 



The question is not, does it pay, but can it be made to pay? There are 

 many things necessary to a profitable consummation of any enterprise, and 

 most of them are as indispensable in farming as in any other business. First, 



6 



