1906.] DISCUSSION. 69 



every town that will take it upon his shoulders to see that that 

 statute is followed out and enforced. Mark the results in 

 our town. Since that statute has been followed the dog tax 

 has increased from eighty to a hundred dollars a year to over 

 three hundred dollars per annum. It has increased the fund 

 available for the proper remuneration and payment of dam- 

 ages done by dogs. It helps in another way. Many useless 

 dogs will disappear in a town where that law is enforced. 



Now just one word regarding the outlook. I presume 

 many of you are subscribers or readers of the Country Gentle- 

 man, and if so, you have noticed the movement headed by 

 Mr. Burr in western Massachusetts, for providing farmers 

 with ewes, for loaning out ewes to the farmers. It is reported 

 that that movement is meeting with unusual success. I do 

 not know how many thousand ewes they have placed upon 

 farms in western Massachusetts. They are loaned to the farm- 

 ers upon the basis that the company will require every farmer 

 receiving a loan of ewes to take care of them, and shall receive 

 for his compensation fifty per cent, of the progeny and one 

 pound of wool for each animal. If men can afford to take 

 sheep on that basis and make a success of it, I do not believe 

 there is a shadow of doubt but what they can go into sheep 

 husbandry tomorrow, owning their own sheep, and make a 

 good profit on the business. At first thought it seems surpris- 

 ing that such a proposition would be a success, and especially 

 when carried out on a large scale where thousands of sheep 

 are involved. Would you want to take a loan of ewes and 

 guarantee to take care of the flock, to keep them and take all 

 of the care of them for a year, and have for your compensa- 

 tion only fifty per cent, of the get and one pound of wool from 

 each ewe? Still that is what that company up in Massachu- 

 setts is offering, and apparently making a success of. I will 

 be much surprised if they do not offer it in Connecticut within 

 a vear or two. 



