62 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



attention when they did not need it in your boyhood days or 

 mine. If a man has a flock of sheep, and especially if he has 

 a lot of lambs that look a little unthrifty, dose them. It is 

 not a serious job at all. If 3-ou want to be successful in raising 

 sheep you must take care of them and pay the same amount of 

 attention that you do to be successful in other lines. If that 

 is done, our farmers in New England and New York can just 

 as well raise sheep profitabl}' now^ as they ever did. 



The outlook in this country for sheep, as the President has 

 intimated, has never been as good as it exists todav. The de- 

 mand for mvitton has never been satisfied. It never will be in 

 your day or mine. The price of wool has reached a solid foun- 

 dation, and will remain. There is nothing that we can see to 

 cause us worry in other countries. We today stand pre-emi- 

 nently triumphant with our sheep, and there is no reason why 

 we cannot come to the front in the sheep raising industry if we 

 will. Not in your day or mine will you see wool back where it 

 w^as without the fashion changes and we go wdthout clothes. 

 We need have no fear of that. The tide of emigration is largely 

 towards this country. Thousands of those people are farmers. 

 It is building up the livestock industry in the east. The west- 

 ern sheep industry has had its day. As an industry it is badly 

 handicapped. Those great free pastures in the west exist 

 no longer, and the lack of water is a serious drawback. The 

 stock-raising opportunities for the farmer of the east never 

 were so good in the world as they are today. With the cheaper 

 land, and with the advantage of water, such as we have in the 

 east, the w^est cannot compete. I have a friend in Iowa, and 

 from letters that I have received within a few da}s I learned 

 that the problem of today with western farmers, with land 

 worth from seventy-five to one hundred dollars an acre, is 

 how can they compete with the east in raising stock. That 

 is their great problem today. You talk about w^estern com- 

 petition ! It does not exist. They are actually fearing today 

 eastern competition with your low^er price of land, and the 

 tremendous advantage which you have in having plenty of 

 water. We who live in this eastern country do not know how* 

 to appreciate water. I want to tell you a little story and then 

 I am going to stop. I alluded to the fact that I was engaged 

 for months in studying the situation and in lecturing to farm- 

 ers' institutes. I went up into that great country lying on the 



